The Lakers had little choice Sunday night in their return to Los Angeles, a style of play chosen for them instead of them choosing it.
LeBron James, upgraded to probable earlier in the day, was suddenly on his way out of the lineup, his sore foot severe enough that his dream of an 82-game season ended Sunday evening.
Without James and still without Austin Reaves, Lakers coach JJ Redick said his team would need to play with distinct characteristics.
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“We’re going to have to move,” Redick said before the game. “We’re going to have to cut. We’re going to have to pass. We’re going to have to play in transition.”
If this sounds familiar it’s because it’s how Redick has said he wants the Lakers to play with James on the court.
Without him Sunday night in a 107-98 win against Portland, the Lakers didn’t need one hero to take over. The stars of the game changed by the moment — Anthony Davis dominating the paint early. Cam Reddish and Gabe Vincent’s defense triggering the Lakers’ first great run. Rui Hachimura, in front of countryman Shohei Ohtani, efficiently carving up the defense. And D’Angelo Russell playing himself into rhythm first by doing the little things and then by doing the flashy things, hitting the crowd-igniting threes that helped carry the Lakers at times a season ago.
“We were running our sets. We were screening well. Guys were getting shots that we had gotten the first couple of games in the season,” Davis said. “It’s not rocket science. We just got to continue to play how we’ve been playing the last couple of games and we’ll be all right.”
Davis finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Russell had season highs with 28 points and 14 assists coming off the bench, giving the Lakers’ second-unit some desperately needed teeth. And Hachimura scored a season-high 23 on just 13 shots while getting four steals.
“We were really good,” Hachimura said of the Lakers’ early-season offense. “We have that. We just kind of broke that. But I think we can get back easily. So we got to focus on that.”
As the Lakers have entered into a bit of an early-season identity crisis, their offensive style has swung from Redick’s preferred motion-based system to more deliberate basketball. Part of that, of course, has to do with Reaves missing the last five games, the Lakers losing one of their primary half-court weapons. Part of it though, has been James admitted adjustments to the Lakers’ plans.
Regardless of why, the numbers don’t lie.
The first 12 games of the season, the Lakers had the NBA’s fifth-rated offense. The last 12 games, the Lakers have the league’s 25th-rated offense.
“You have to adapt throughout the season with what works for the group and what works for different players,” Redick said after Sunday’s win. “I will say, night to night, LeBron and AD are gonna have the ball, and the offense is gonna run through them. How we do that has been different at different times throughout the year.
“The other guys are really good offensive players and really talented. And there’s nights where it’s their nights and there’s nights where it’s not. So some of it is feel but again, you have to be open to mixing different things in.”
One of those “other” guys, Russell, had his best offensive game of the season, catching fire in the fourth when he scored 13 points.
Russell declined to speak to the media after the game.
The team’s struggles trying to find the right compromise was a guaranteed challenge, the early-season buy-in and execution were sure to suffer once old habits resurfaced. The challenge now for Redick and the players is to recapture who they were early and reinforce that it’s who they should be moving forward.
A game such as Sunday’s, even against the third-worst team in the West, can have some utility for the team as it gets healthier and the challenges increase.
The Lakers now have four days off before they play the Timberwolves in Minnesota, time they need to rest, to recover and to reconsider what kind of basketball they should be playing.
“We know what we’re supposed to do offensively,” Davis said. “We know where we’re supposed to get to as far as our spots, our running patterns, offensive schemes our plays — we know all of that. Just about a matter of executing it.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
