The Los Angeles Lakers‘ hot start to the season has drastically cooled off. JJ Redick’s team is now 4-4 and is starting to look like the fringe contender many assumed they would be.
D’Angelo Russell saw his playing time cut during Wednesday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. He didn’t take to the court for the entire fourth quarter and played a season-low 22 minutes.
During his postgame news conference, Redick told Russell to compete harder and focus on the details. The rookie head coach clarified his reasoning for Russell’s limited playing time.
“Level of compete,” Redick said. “Attention to detail. Some of the things we’ve talked with him about a couple of weeks. At times he’s been really good, other times it’s just reverting to certain habits. It wasn’t like a punishment, but for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take. Gabe in the first half, especially defensively, was fantastic. I just wanted to see what that looked like.”