The Los Angeles Lakers had a welcome break in the schedule this week, getting their league-best 11th win on Wednesday in Milwaukee before coming home for three days off before playing Phoenix on the road on Sunday. At 11-2, the team is tied for the lead in the Western Conference with the Spurs, a position that even the most optimistic of Lakers fans would not have foreseen at this point in the year. One player who has been a pleasant surprise: Ziaire Williams, who is averaging a career-high 11.0 points while making 56.3% of his shots and 46.5% of his 3s.
But coach JJ Redick, seeking to ensure the lakers do not get too full of themselves early in the season, used the break to conduct what he called an “audit” of the team, and with the No. 1 offense in the league (a 121.6 rating) combined with just the No. 18 defense (113.6), he made sure there was plenty to talk about when it comes to getting better for the next push in the schedule, which features, after Phoenix, four home games against teams with a combined 7-43 record.
Ziaire Williams: ‘A Lot of Thing to Clean Up’
Williams was surprised by the Lakers audit, but also pleased to find that the team can actually play much better despite the 11-2 record.
He said: “It was good. A lot of good things and a lot of things to clean up. Being first in the West, with the stuff that they showed us, you would think we were almost last, you know. Got to keep us honest. But it is good to know there is room for growth as good as we’re doing. So, yeah, it was great. Hopefully, we will clean that up next game against Phoenix.”
JJ Redick Wants Lakers to Be ‘Relentless’
Redick explained how the Lakers went about the review, and just how many points there were to go over with the team.
He said: “I had about 20 things. Greg (St. Jean), Ty (Abbott), and Nate (McMillan) had about 20 things on the defensive end. Our analyst guys put together a 21-page presentation that we went over this morning. We filtered through our offensive stuff, based on our identities of what we want to be offensively: organized, unselfish, advantage-based. And then we went to our defense, and our three identities: organized, physical as (expletive), and relentless.”
Lakers Wing Gets ‘Honest’ About JJ Redick Audit