JJ Redick: Thunder Are ‘Incredible Basketball Team’

The Los Angeles Lakers’ series against the Oklahoma City Thunder has followed the same script for three straight games as JJ Redick’s team has been able to keep up with the defending champs in the first half before falling into deficits they can never recover from in the third quarters.

In Game 3 on Saturday night, the Lakers were up by two at the half before being outscored by 13 in the third quarter and 25 in the second half as a whole. Redick is left searching for answers as after the game, he praised the Thunder for the lack of holes on their roster.

“Again, I think it’s, typically, if you can poke holes at a team in a playoff series, there’s a good chance they might have a temporary solution or can sort of adjust maybe a little bit,” Redick said.

“This team, in-game, because of their personnel can just adjust like that. They need shooting on the floor, great. They need multiple wing defenders on the floor, great. They need two bigs on the floor, great. It’s just, it’s, they’re a terrific basketball team.

“I said that before the series. Been very impressed with them. Still think we can beat them but we gotta be better.”

Redick is right as the Lakers have largely been able to neutralize Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is on the verge of winning his second NBA MVP award, in this series.

But despite that, numerous other Thunder players have stepped up to take a 3-0 lead. The Lakers lack the depth the Thunder have, especially with Luka Doncic out of the lineup, and Oklahoma City has looked like the fresher team down the stretch of these games as a result.

No team has ever come back from down 3-0 in a playoff series, but it is good to see that Redick is remaining confident going into Game 4 even if the Lakers’ odds are extremely slim.

JJ Redick believes turnovers have hurt Lakers against Thunder

Part of what makes the Thunder so great is they punish every mistake the Lakers make, which Redick spoke about after Game 3 when lamenting his team’s turnovers.

“Again, the turnovers, lower number, but they still scored thirty points off those turnovers,” Redick said. “We had five of them in the third. I think all of them actually led to them getting fastbreak transition baskets.

“I don’t know what they ended up being, but I know at one point they were 11-of-17 from 3 in the second half. You’re not getting stops, it’s harder to score. Again, the MVP is, 18, 22, 7-of-20 tonight and they’ve kicked our ass in three straight games. They’re an incredible basketball team.”