Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick tipped his team’s first half against the Toronto Raptors as their best half of the ongoing season so far. The Lakers decimated the Raptors by 43-19 in the first quarter and were able to put their noses in front.
Anthony Davis was the star of the show, top-scoring with 38 points on 14-20 shooting. On the other hand, LeBron James was able to get off the blocks in a jiffy, scoring 14 points in the opening frame.
After the first half, the Lakers had a healthy lead of 25 points. James scored a total of 27 points whereas D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves scored 19 and 20 points respectively.
“Our team in that first half probably played our best half of basketball,” Redick said. “It wasn’t mistake-free…As good as we can play offensively. You watch the Charlotte game the other night, they got down big on the road and they kept playing and they turned that into a 138-133 game. In the NBA, when you get a big lead, your focus can wane on the defensive end and I thought that’s what happened tonight.
“But you also have to give them a lot of credit. They play really hard. They keep playing. I think, for our team, all of that movement and driving and movement and driving, it was tough for us to guard the other day with Cleveland and it was tough for us to guard tonight.”
He concluded, “We’ll certainly try to get better and clean some things up. We also have to start the third quarter better. That was probably the biggest thing. You can try to put your opponent away there in the first five or six minutes there of the third quarter when you have a big lead like that and we allowed them to have life.”
The Lakers currently have a 4-2 record and they will next take on Detriot Pistons on Monday.
