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Dave McMenamin
NEW YORK — A visibly perturbed Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick didn’t care that his team was missing three starters, including superstar LeBron James, after Monday’s 111-108 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
His players that were available didn’t play up to the team’s standards.
“I think it was a very low-level communication game for our team,” Redick said. “I don’t think being short-handed is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight.”
Besides James, missing his first game since suffering a strained left groin against the Boston Celtics on Saturday, L.A. was without starting center Jaxson Hayes (knee), starting forward Rui Hachimura (knee) and key reserve Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle).
The Lakers led by as many as 15 points early and their defense held Brooklyn to just 16 points in the first quarter on 31.6% shooting.
It all went downhill from there.
“I think it was just an overall mentality just to take shortcuts tonight,” Redick continued. “Want to be a good team? You want to win in the NBA? You got to do the hard stuff. We couldn’t even pass to each other. We couldn’t enter our offense, running ball screens literally at half court. Yeah, that’s going to end up in a turnover. I don’t know what we’re doing.”
Luka Doncic, when asked about Redick’s criticism of the team’s communication, took responsibility for the loss.
“When JJ said [that] about communication today, that was important,” Doncic said. “That’s my fault and we should have done better at that.”
Doncic logged his second triple-double as a Laker with 22 points, 12 assists and 12 rebounds, but he shot just 8-for-26 from the field (3-for-10 from 3) with five turnovers.
The Nets repeatedly blitzed Doncic with two defenders — something Doncic says he has seen too many times to count throughout his career — but he failed to pick apart properly against Brooklyn.
Austin Reaves, L.A.’s other primary playmaker besides Doncic with James out, also neared a triple-double (17 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds), but shot just 3-for-14 from the field.
“I just thought I played incredibly bad,” Reaves said. “That’s, really, you know, about as much as I can say about that. It’s frustrating not helping your team win. When Bron’s out, I got to be better and I wasn’t. That’s one of the reasons we lost.”
Los Angeles received key contributions from several role players, with Gabe Vincent stepping into the starting lineup to score his most points as a Laker (24 points on 8-for-12 shooting and 6-of-9 from 3); rookie Dalton Knecht scoring 19 points; and two-way guard Jordan Goodwin scoring 17 points off the bench, hitting a career high number of 3-pointers (5-for-6) with eight rebounds.
“I think I should have helped more,” Doncic said when asked about the trio of Vincent, Knecht and Goodwin. “But they all played great. We got to have the same mentality moving forward. Injuries are going to happen and it’s got to be a next-man-up mentality.”
The Lakers’ two-game losing streak, combined with the Memphis Grizzlies’ three-game winning streak, has them just a half game up on Memphis for No. 3 in the Western Conference standings.
With sources telling ESPN’s Shams Charania that James is expected to be sidelined at least 1-2 weeks with his groin injury, things aren’t suddenly going to get any easier, either.
Especially with the schedule packing six games in the span of eight days starting with a road back-to-back in Milwaukee, followed by in Denver on Thursday and Friday.
Redick said he planned to get his team on the court for a rare practice before the Bucks game to clean things up before the treacherous stretch begins.
“Everybody’s got to buy in to helping the team be successful,” Reaves said. “And like I’ve said two or three times already, I’ve got to be better. I mean, we’ll start there with me. I got to be better.”
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