LOS ANGELES — Despite suffering one of their worst losses of the season – and their worst since consistently starting to play at a championship-contending level over two months ago – coach JJ Redick wanted to provide his group with grace.
But he also wanted to make sure it was understood the Lakers don’t have time to waste.
Redick knew his players were unlikely to immediately recapture the rhythm they were playing with from a few weeks ago when they won 20 of 24 games from Jan. 15 to March 6 – including 7-2 when Luka Doncic played.
It’ll take time to build chemistry and familiarity after having just a handful of games with Doncic playing before multiple starters missed time with injuries – including LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, both of whom made their returns in Saturday’s 146-115 home defeat to the Chicago Bulls.
“The thing that we have talked about all season long, though, is grace,” Redick said. “And so the group inherently gets some grace for what this last three weeks has looked like. And it’s not an excuse. It’s just the nature of where a group felt very connected and then you lose some games on the road, you have some injuries, all that stuff.”
The problem for the Lakers is that they don’t have much time left before a potential playoff run.
After the loss to the Bulls, in which the Lakers allowed their most points in a game this season and the most in a non-overtime home game in franchise history, the Lakers have 12 games remaining in the regular season’s final three weeks.
Eight of those 12 games will be on the road, starting with Monday’s matchup against the Orlando Magic that kicks off a four-game trip.
“You gotta get reconnected,” Redick said. “We’ll get there. We, however, don’t have a lot of time to do that. And it’s gotta be now.
“It can’t be in a week. It can’t be in two weeks. it’s gotta be now. It’s gotta be Monday morning in our film session, in our walkthrough for Orlando.”
At the forefront of the Lakers’ hopes of becoming reconnected is their push for a spot in the playoffs.
They entered Sunday at the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference standings with a 43-27 record, 2 ½ games behind the No. 2 Houston Rockets, a half-game behind the No. 3 Denver Nuggets, a half-game ahead of the No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies and 2 ½ games ahead of the No. 6 Golden State Warriors.
The top six teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs outright, with seeds 7-10 in each conference competing in the play-in tournament for seeds Nos. 7 and 8.
“We got 12 games to position ourselves in the postseason,” James said. “We pretty much can control our own destiny if we win ball games and not have to be in the play-in. That’s what JJ has been preaching, obviously, he told that to you guys. He wants to be in the playoffs and not the play-in. So that’s up to us.”
But with only a few weeks left in the season, it’s unlikely the Lakers will be able to build up their continuity to the level of the teams in the West around them in the standings that’ve had the same core for multiple years.
Austin Reaves feels the Lakers can fast-track their process with communication on and off the floor.
“Talk to one another,” he added. “That’s really…we can watch as much film as we want to watch to help that way. Communication amongst everybody on the team is going to play a big role in that. We’re not going to be on court practicing. So we have to communicate. If it’s on flights, talking about what we can do to be better, that’s what it’ll be.”
LAKERS AT MAGIC
When: Monday, 4 p.m. PT
Where: Kia Center, Orlando, Fla.
TV/radio: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM
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