PHILADELPHIA — JJ Redick’s voice during the last two weeks has begun to gravel, the toll of screaming his method by means of basketball sport after basketball sport beginning to put on on his vocal chords.
The yelling has been a necessity, the Lakers being a staff that wants fixed reminders of the factors Redick and his teaching workers have tried to emphasise. And pregame Tuesday, Redick delivered the most important level they needed to make calmly.
“Now we have to play a wise sport,” he stated intentionally.
Of their Monday night time win in Charlotte, the Lakers definitely performed laborious. However after the primary quarter, they not often performed good, recklessly passing the ball all around the court docket. That couldn’t occur once more — even with the 76ers enjoying minus Joel Embiid and Paul George.
The Lakers, Redick stated, wanted to play a wise sport.
They didn’t and paid dearly, shedding 118-104.
That calm rapidly evaporated, Redick screaming at his staff to run an “expletive play,” snatching the ball after calling a timeout and grabbing it like he was attempting to squeeze all of the air out of it.
LeBron James threw his palms up within the air after firing a move properly behind a chopping Rui Hachimura. Max Christie’s eyes went to the sky after a defensive miscommunication left him masking, on the identical play, a participant on the proper block and the left nook. And Redick’s eyes locked onto the court docket as he shook his head, his staff submerged beneath an avalanche of errors.
The Lakers truly opened the sport with power and intention, rapidly main by 9 factors. However Bronny James Jr., enjoying as a result of the Lakers had been with out Gabe Vincent for the second-straight sport, had a tough shift on Tyrese Maxey, serving to shift momentum. After which with two minutes to go within the first, Anthony Davis left the sport holding his facet. He didn’t return.
With out their greatest defender, Maxey cooked the Lakers’ protection, sprinting previous whoever tried to cowl him to both rating or draw a foul. The staff’s protection was so atrocious within the quarter that the Lakers shot 70.6% from the sphere and had been nonetheless outscored 48-32 within the second.
Philadelphia shot 16 free throws within the second quarter alone, Dorian Finney-Smith selecting up three of his 4 first-half fouls within the quarter. The Lakers additionally had been with out Jarred Vanderbilt, the staff electing to carry him out on the second night time of a back-to-back after he missed the primary 42 video games of the yr.
The Lakers turned the ball over 22 instances and trailed by as many as 25. James had eight of these turnovers, although he scored 31 factors.
Rookie Dalton Knecht had 24 off the bench.
Maxey led everybody with 43 factors, the 76ers having now crushed the Lakers seven straight instances in Philadelphia by a mean of 18.3 factors.
The Lakers play once more Thursday in Washington in opposition to the Wizards.