Latest / Bleacher Report / JJ Redick & LeBron James React to Lakers Game 1 Loss vs. Timberwolves _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

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JJ Redick & LeBron James React to Lakers Game 1 Loss vs. Timberwolves _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: JJ, you went into the second quarter of seven, what
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: did you see flip in the game at that point.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: They were able to get. The start of their run
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: was transition and a second chance and if you look
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: sort of that, you know the effort offense areas for them.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: They ended up a twenty five fast break points, which
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: that's always skewed by the counter, so it's more than that,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and twenty three second chance points. So you know, the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: schematics wise in the half court, we'll take a look
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: at everything and see what we want to tweak and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: all that. You know, that's that's hard. It's hard to overcome,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: particularly when a team is shooting like they were shooting tonight.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: With that said that, you got to go and look
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: at it, and you know they hit twenty one threes.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: How many of those did you feel like were ones
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: that you kind of have to live with to wall
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: up the paint versus ones that you would have liked
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to see and contested differently.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have to go look back at everyone,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: but I know a number of those were in transition
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: and off offensive rebounds.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: JJ. Luca was able to get off to such a
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: good start scoring the basketball, but I think finished with
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: only a single assist. What were they doing to kind
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: of limit his playmaking opportunities? And what did you see
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: on that front when it came to the other guys,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: particularly early in the first half.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: A lot of it was just, you know, the coverage scheme.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: They had.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Not really playing Gobert his normal minutes, and then some
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: late red some late feers with him when he when
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: he was in coverage. Then you know that they they
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: had their one through five switching group in so just
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: in terms of like the the two on the basketball,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the blitzes, the four on three's just not there. I mean,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: we you know, I think that was expected on our side.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: But again, you know, we'll look at the film and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and see what we can do better.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: JJ.
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: So much of your your right, so much of your
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: mantra this year has been effort defensively. It just wasn't
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: there at the beginning of the second and the beginning
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: of the third. Any thoughts on why that was or
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: were they doing something different to offset it?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: No, I don't. Again, they're a great opponent, they're one
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of the best teams in basketball. There's I think it's
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: not to say our guys weren't like ready to withstand
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: like a playoff level basketball game. We were mentally ready.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I thought our spirit was right. I thought even when
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: they made runs, our huddles were great. You know, the
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: communication was great. You know, I'm not sure physically we
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: were we were ready, and if that makes sense. And
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: really when they started playing with a lot of thrust
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: and physicality, like we just didn't respond immediately to that.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And then that stretch from the start of the second
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: through you know, five four or five minutes to go
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: in the third, you know, we lost that stretch by
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: thirty four. So you know, that's a that's a blowout, Lebron.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: You've been through more game ones than anybody. What after
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a game like this, you know where where it's a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: big score line at home, what's the kind of the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: proper way to try and respond from that mentally, physically and.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: All of it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: Well, obviously we got to do a better job of
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: controlling the controllables. And I don't think we did a
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: good enough job after the first quarter. You know, once
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: you know, they blits us in that second quarter thirty
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: eight twenty, but you know, giving up twenty three twenty
• 3:49
  Speaker 6: one threes, giving up twenty plus fastbreay points, second chance points.
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: Those are some of the things that we can control.
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: You know. Obviously the three point shooting. We know they
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: have a lot of lasers, have a lot of guys
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: that could shoot from the perimeter, So we got to
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: do a better drive of closing the bodies and getting
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: out on shooters. So, you know, we'll get back in
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: the film room tomorrow, look at the things that we
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: did well, some of the things that we didn't do
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: so well, and uh, continue the game plan for game two.
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: We have a couple of days to to to prepare
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: for it.
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: Brought both AR and JJ mentioned that they felt like
• 4:25
  Speaker 7: one of the factors tonight was the physicality being something
• 4:28
  Speaker 7: that maybe caught you guys early on in the game.
• 4:32
  Speaker 7: Were there anything that you saw that gave you belief
• 4:35
  Speaker 7: that you figured out how to counter that as the
• 4:37
  Speaker 7: game went on that you can take into game too.
• 4:39
  Speaker 6: Well, definitely, I mean no, you know, when you're playing
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: in Minnesota team, they're gonna be physical. That's what they
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: bringing to the table. So you know, maybe it maybe
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: it took us one playoff game to now get a
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: feel forward and know what the type of intensity, the
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: type of physicality is gonna be brought to the game,
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: but that's just the way they play, so we should
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: be more than prepare for that. On was in it.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Lebron. Obviously, you guys are gonna meet game two with
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: a sense of urgency. But what's sort of the right
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: the right approach to a game too, when you're down
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: on one in terms of still being calm and understanding
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: kind of the big picture of things while also knowing
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: that it's obviously an incredibly important game.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: No, I mean understand that. I mean, you know they
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: took home court from us tonight, you know, as far
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: as the series, but you know, we have an opportunity
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: even a series on on Tuesday, and we have to
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: play a much better game than we did today. Like
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: I said, we have the controller controllables, and if we
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: do that, we're gonna give ourselves a much better chance
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: to win than we did tonight.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: You mentioned one of their first answers there, the Timberwolves
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: twenty plus fast break points is a key factor on
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: how much of that did you see as a result
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: of just you guys missing shots close to the room
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: and near the room and them running out just from there.
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: No, we did a great job later on it, you know.
• 5:54
  Speaker 6: I mean throughout the whole season, we did a great
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: job of not a lot of teams they get you know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: you know, you fast bead point, at the fast red point,
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: at the fast third point a minute. Like I said it,
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: guys are ten for fifteen and twenty five points on
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: the fast break. You know, we already know offensively how
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: dangerous they are. You know, so when you're giving teams
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: and an opportunity to get those easy points, you know
• 6:13
  Speaker 6: it's gonna be hard to make that up. I mean
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: we only had six ourselves, so that we got outscored
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: by nineteen that in that in that race. So you know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: those are things that we control by getting back setting
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: our defense, making them score against our half core defense.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Lebron, You guys closed the third on on a seventeen
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: and six run and then carry that over into the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: first few minutes of the fourth. What did you see
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: during that stretch of like six seven minutes that you
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: feel like you.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Could take it again?
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: We just met we met the intensity what they were
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: bringing to the table. We met the physicality with physicality
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: and started to get up into them. You know, a
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: lot of us get some turnovers, a lot of us
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: get some extra possessions and they allowed us to get
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: back into the game. So, like I said, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: sometimes it takes a quarter, two quarters, a full game
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: to get used to playoff basketball once again. So it
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: shouldn't be no surprise on Tuesday, Lebron.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: Uh to your right. When you talk about controlling the
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: controllables in the second and third quarter, what comes to
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: mind at those times.
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: Offensive rebounds, giving up open open shots to lasers, you know,
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: not being in the right position, you know. So it
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: was a lot of factors, a lot of factors that
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: that you know, allowed them to build that big lead
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: up to twenty.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Seven of Lebron.
• 7:31
  Speaker 8: Minnesota was able to kind of penetrate, driving kick and
• 7:34
  Speaker 8: convert your line on those corner threes and things of
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: that nature. How much of that was just a team
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: getting hot and heeting their shots, and how much of
• 7:40
  Speaker 8: that is part of the control the controllables and things
• 7:42
  Speaker 8: that you.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: Know you can We're gonna look at the film and
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: break it down. There are some that was just great
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: plays by them. We're all NBA players, we know how
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: to make plays. Some of the things we could have control.
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: But we watched the Famasy ways we could be better
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: with our rotations going in the game too.
• 8:00
  Speaker 9: Oh sorry, Lebron. The Chamber of scored eighteen points after
• 8:04
  Speaker 9: turnovers compared just to nine by the Lakers. How do
• 8:08
  Speaker 9: they think the team can do a better job managing
• 8:10
  Speaker 9: that in the upcoming games?
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: Well, obviously, you know, taking care of the ball versus
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: team like this is very important. But anytime you're in
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: the post season, you got to take care of the ball,
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: you know, and if you turn the ball over, you
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: got to try your best to get back, you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: and transition and not allow them to get points. Like
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: you said, they had eighteen points of our thirteen turnovers
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: and we only had nine off thirteen. So we got
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: to do a much better job of trying to turn
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: them over and at the same time do a better
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: job of protecting the ball, you know, and not having
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: as many turnovers for us, and especially at home.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it.