JJ Redick’s ‘confident’ truth bomb after dominating Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers snapped a three-game losing streak following their 129-101 win against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. The Lakers showed the type of complete effort from start to finish that head coach JJ Redick has been asking for the entire season.

Some of the Lakers’ issues this season can be chalked up to inconsistency in the lineup and rotation due to injury, and JJ Redick acknowledged that after the team’s win against the Warriors. But some of it has also fallen on the energy and intensity, or lack thereof, that the Lakers have shown at times.

But after the full-48 minute effort against the Warriors, Redick admitted that he believes the team is going to eventually reach the level where he wants them before the season is over.

“Like I said before the game, these guys want to do it right. They’re trying. I know my staff, myself, we’re always looking for answers and solutions. That’s what this, we’re trying to find solutions,” Redick said during his postgame press conference. “I’m confident we are going to find that level that we want to get to.”

“It’s been partially just cause of the disruption of lineups and different factors. We just haven’t had the continuity that I thought we were going to have coming into the year,” Redick continued. “It’s taken longer than I thought, but I’m confident we’re going to get there.”

Following the win against the Warriors, the Lakers moved to 35-24 on the season. They are only two games back of the No. 3 seed Houston Rockets in what’s shaping up to be a competitive race for positioning in the Western Conference standings down the stretch of the regular season.

There are only three and half games that separate the No. 3 seed and the No. 7 seed. The Phoenix Suns are currently in seventh place. The No. 7 seed would be just outside making the playoffs outright and having to go through the play-in.

Last season, the Lakers finished with the third seed in the West playoff picture, but were eliminated in the opening round in five games by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Redick is in his second year as Lakers head coach, and the team is presently in sixth place in the West standings. They are only a game and a half up on the Suns and potentially falling into the play-in. They have 22 games remaining the regular season to consistently show the level of competitiveness that Redick is sure they can reach.