JJ Redick dances to a different drumbeat than most basketball coaches. After watching the smaller Gabe Vincent get abused down the stretch by a bigger Jimmy Butler, JJ doubled down on his small ball starting lineup.
Instead of replacing Vincent with the taller, longer Smart, Redick rolled out the same starting lineup that had lost on opening night to the Warriors to prove to the players it was how they played, not who played, that mattered. Redick wanted his players to understand they didn’t lost the game because Gabe started for LeBron. They lost a game they could have won because they blew the 3rd quarter, shot 25% from three, and missed 11 free throws.
Last night, the Lakers came out and rewarded their coach’s gutty decision with a 128–110 blowout victory over the same Timberwolves team that had eliminated them in five games in the first round of last season’s playoffs.
Luka Doncic led the way with 49/11/8 while Austin Reaves added 25/7/11 and Rui Hachimura 23/2/0. Ironically, while Gabe did not have a great game, Smart and Vando together off the bench were electric on defense.
Most young, inexperienced second-year head coaches would simply have replaced Vincent with Smart but Redick instinctively understood that was not the right decision and would be wrongly throwing Gabe under the bus.
While Smart could still replace Vincent in the starting lineup, the move by Redick not to panic and change the starters but instead to focus on fixing the real reasons they lost the opener turned the Lakers’ season around.
Now, instead of worrying about falling behind while waiting for LeBron, the Lakers can suddenly celebrate and rejoice at the possibility that, even without LeBron James, this year’s team could be better than last year’s.
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