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Lakers Might Have Found Solution to Defend Elite Wing Players

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Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick made a surprising move this week when he decided to bench D’Angelo Russell for Cam Reddish. The switch intended to improve the defense with Reddish starting, as well as provide a needed spark off of the bench in Russell.

The decision paid off in the Lakers’ 116-106 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Though the 76ers were without Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the Lakers earned the win after losing four of their previous five games.

Reddish stepped in and helped stifle Paul George throughout the game. George finished with just nine points, four rebounds, and eight assists, and was unable to get going offensively.

Anthony Davis, who returned from injury and scored 31 points in the win, broke down what Reddish did well defensively in the game.

“He’s disruptive, he’s handsy, he’s physical, he’s tough, he slides his feet,” Davis said, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “That’s what we need. He’s been that for us, especially the last three games. And it stands out. It got him in the rotation. You need a player like that who you kinda just feed off of their energy. He’s coming into the game and getting steals and guarding the other team’s best wing and putting a lot of pressure on that wing to make tough shots, tough plays.”

JJ Redick credited Lakers bench against Toronto

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Production from the Lakers’ bench players has been hard to come by, but against the Raptors, they stepped up in a big way.

Now 5-0 at home, Redick shared his thoughts on how his bench performed versus the Raptors.

“The bench itself tonight, you think about, we were flat in the first half, D’Lo gave us a lift,” Redick said postgame. “We executed another 3-for-2 at the end of the first half to sort of get some momentum and then Gabe, Dalton, Jaxson off the bench in the second half were, were great.”

It’s no surprise that Russell’s benching and Cam Reddish taking his place with the starters have given reserve scoring a shot in the arm.

Since making the move after an abysmal road trip, the Lakers bench has produced 36 points per game. Russell is back to his standard of play, scoring 16.5 points a night compared to the 12 he was averaging as a starter.

These early returns on Redick’s gutsy move are encouraging. Now, this is a small sample size, but everything is given that there have only been ten games.

Russell may have led the bench, but he wasn’t the only one playing well. Dalton Knecht had one of his better games, going 2-4 from the field and Gabe Vincent made an impact.

If the bench can continue replicating this success, it would bring the Lakers to the middle of the pack in bench production. That kind of improvement is substantial and the type of gains that can be made to raise this team’s ceiling.

The Lakers don’t need to be elite in everything. They just need to excel in their strengths, like points in the paint and not be league-worst in their weaknesses, like bench scoring and transition defense.

The defense has a long way to go, but perhaps the bench production is here to stay if Russell can lead this unit and Reddish is a good enough defender to make a dip in the offense from the starters worth it.