The Los Angeles Lakers were completely outclassed by the Boston Celtics on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. While their defense could've been better, the biggest culprit in their 111-89 loss was their offense.
They shot 39.1% from the field and 30% from 3-point range, mustered only 18 assists and nine fast-break points and had no pace or urgency to their attack in general. Boston dictated the pace, physicality and overall tone of the game, and the Lakers couldn't find a way to inject themselves with some sort of remedy.
Coach JJ Redick didn't mince words about how poor they were offensively.
“We did enough defensively -- we were just awful offensively tonight,” Redick said.
Redick said his team could've done a better job of attacking the paint and converting there.
“There were opportunities, I think, to put more pressure on the rim, particularly in the first half. We took 11 non-paint 2s. We were 13 for 29 on paint 2s, non-rim paint 2s, so that's not normally what we shoot. Got some good looks from 3, we didn't knock them down. You gotta make shots in this league.”
Los Angeles scored 42 points in the paint compared to 48 for Boston, but on the season, it averages 51.7 points in the paint per game. One thing that hurt it offensively, along with everything else, was its lack of prowess on the boards. The Lakers were outrebounded by 11, which limited their transition opportunities, and they gave up 17 second-chance points while getting only six themselves.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick didn't mince words about Lakers' 'awful' offense vs. Celtics