LOS ANGELES — Perhaps JJ Redick was testing a narrative last week, when the Lakers coach made the observation that his team had gone from the team nobody wanted to face in the postseason to one suddenly vulnerable.
“I’m sure everybody wants to play us,” Redick said Friday before the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns. “Let’s get that out there.”
No, this wasn’t a “woe is us” proclamation, even though with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves unavailable for the foreseeable feature I’m guessing most NBA observers are thinking, “woe is them.” More likely, this was Redick playing the underdog card, maybe as a way of letting his players know they’ve got an opportunity to, if not shock the world, at least surprise it a bit.
Yes, pulling out the underdog card would normally be a real stretch with one of the league’s glamour franchises. But these aren’t normal times.
So there are multiple ways to look at the first-round series against Houston that begins Saturday night in downtown L.A. The Lakers finished 53-29 and are seeded fourth, having finished one game ahead of the Rockets. They had won 16 of 18 games from the end of February through the end of March to thrust themselves into the conversation as a postseason threat … and then Doncic hurt his hamstring, and Reaves his oblique, in the same game, a miserable 139-96 loss in Oklahoma City on April 2.
Neither is expected to play against Houston. The best-case scenario would be for the Lakers’ remainders to extend the best-of-seven series with the Rockets long enough for Doncic and Reaves to rejoin LeBron James in that Big Three, either at the end of this series or the start of the next one.
But then there’s this: Should the Lakers eliminate Houston, which isn’t out of the question, going into the playoffs with the No. 4 seed instead of No. 3 means a second-round series against top-seeded OKC. Uh-oh.
The Lakers are 0-4 against the defending champs, and while you can make the case that the back-to-back losses in the last two weeks by 43 and 36 points were under extenuating circumstances, the Thunder also won by 29 at home in November – with James still two games away from returning after missing the first 14 because of sciatica – and by nine in L.A. in February on a night when both Doncic and Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sat out.
It’s seldom wise to look ahead. In this case? Absolutely so.
One quirk of this season, as Redick pointed out Sunday evening, is that LeBron adjusted his game to benefit Doncic and Reaves upon his return to the lineup in mid-November. Now James has had to adjust again – and his performance in Sunday’s 131-107 rout of the tanking Utah Jazz recalled the old LeBron, rather than an old LeBron: 18 points, four rebounds, six assists, three steals and a plus-14 in just 16:33 before taking the second half off.
He didn’t figure to play the second half anyway against the outmanned Jazz, but he had earned the rest. He absolutely was not playing like a 41-year-old.
“I mean, it’s a daily commitment,” Redick said. “You probably have to ask him exactly what it was, but I know there’s things he’s cut out from his diet, and there’s things that he has done more of to get his body ready. You know, I think it was really frustrating for him not to be there day one at training camp. It was really frustrating for him to not be there on opening night. He played in 60 of the 68 remaining games and he played in a bunch of back-to-backs.
“He had not a good season, not a great (one), he had a remarkable season. All things considered, you take away the fact that he’s in his 23rd year and he’s 41 years old. He had a remarkable season.”
Interestingly, when asked about the tone that LeBron sets, center Deandre Ayton called his level of focus off the court from a preparation standpoint “contagious.” This is the center who, as Redick has pointed out, needs early touches and shots to remain engaged over the course of a game.
Ayton had a spring in his step Sunday night, with 22 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots for his 22nd double-double of the season and 14th 20-point performance. Given that Alperen Sengun, Houston’s 6-foot-11 center, averages 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game, as an effective wingman to fellow All-Star Kevin Durant (26 ppg), it might be a good idea to feed Deandre early on to keep him interested.
And the return of veteran guard Marcus Smart, back on the court this weekend after missing nine straight games because of ankle issues, should be a stabilizing factor. Smart, whose 62 games played this season were his most since 2022-23 with the Boston Celtics, has 17 assists in his first two games back despite being on a minutes restriction, but his contribution might be attitudinal as much as physical.
“I go out there and leave it all on the line every night,” he said. “My teammates see that, my coaches see that. They respect it. And it helps inspire and motivate them to do the best, to do exactly the same thing I’m doing.”
(No, we will not insert a Deandre Ayton one-liner here. Draw your own conclusions.)
As for the idea that this series might be determined by physicality? Bring it on.
“These guys know my motto: Toughest team sets the rules,” Smart said. “And the playoffs are a little bit different. Things are a lot tougher. They let you play a lot more. And I think that works (to) my advantage and our advantage.”
Redick talked of how during both last season and this one, “we’ve had to coach a bunch of different ways.” Last year, it was the huge midseason trade with Dallas that brought Doncic to L.A. This year, the ill-timed injuries.
Sometimes you forget that this is just his second year of coaching at any level higher than grade-school kids, and there will be growing pains. Last year they were painful in the postseason, when the Lakers had the No. 3 seed but were eliminated by Minnesota in five games in the first round.
I asked him how he would assess his growth and development as a coach from Year One to Year Two.
“It was fine,” he said, pondering a moment before he continued.
“You can always get better at some stuff, and that’s the beauty of this job and this profession. I actually was thinking about it today on my drive in. I’m so excited for this week, and I’m so excited for this series because there’s things I learned over the last two regular seasons and one playoff series that I’m excited about for this upcoming stretch. And there’s also going to be another opportunity to grow, another opportunity that will test me.
“That perpetual growth opportunity is the beauty of this.”
There’s only one catch, and it’s a big one: You want those opportunities to keep growing? You better win some playoff series.
jalexander@scng.com