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Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick turned heads during Wednesday’s game when he sat down on a chair before slamming it to the ground multiple times after a poor shot from D’Angelo Russell, but he provided more context to the situation Friday.
Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported Redick said he spoke with the guard and also explained he wasn’t directly upset with Russell but instead “25” possessions from the team that led to that point. He said possessions from multiple players led to that reaction even though it came after a shot attempt from Russell.
As Harrison Faigen of SB Nation noted, the head coach benched the 28-year-old for the majority of the second half of Los Angeles’ 131-114 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Just level of compete, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked with him about for a couple of weeks,” Redick told reporters when discussing why he did so. “And at times, he’s been really good with that stuff and other times, it’s just reverting back to certain habits.”
The loss was the Lakers’ fourth in their last five games after a promising 3-0 start in Redick’s first season as head coach. That is sure to lead to some frustration, especially since he needed other players to elevate their games with Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura both sidelined.
Instead, Russell went 4-of-12 from the field and 2-of-9 from deep.
LeBron James single-handedly carried the offense for stretches with 39 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but he didn’t receive nearly enough help from his teammates. And the head coach wasn’t happy about it.
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