After Game 6 exit, Rockets player praises JJ Redick's teaching
- The Lakers ended Houston’s season Friday with a 98-78 Game 6 win, and Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. singled out JJ Redick’s defensive adjustment after. - Smith said Los Angeles’ switching took away Houston’s usual skip and pocket-pass reads; the Rockets shot 35% overall and just 5-for-28 from deep. - That matters because Redick just earned his first playoff series win, and the Lakers now head to Oklahoma City.
The news here is not just that the Lakers knocked out the Rockets. It’s that one of Houston’s own players basically explained why the series ended the way it did — and gave JJ Redick credit for seeing the right pressure point. After the Lakers’ 98-78 Game 6 win on May 1, Jabari Smith Jr. said Los Angeles’ switching defense blew up the actions Houston usually relies on. That matters because it turns a simple closeout story into a coaching story too. Redick didn’t just survive his first playoff series as Lakers coach — he won a tactical fight inside it. (nba.com) ### What actually happened in Game 6? Los Angeles closed the first-round series 4-2 with a 20-point win at Toyota Center. The Lakers took control in the second quarter, pushed the lead to 25 in the third, and never gave Houston a real path back. LeBron James finished with 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists, Rui Hachimura scored 21 and hit 5 of 7 from(nba.com)games with a strained oblique. (nba.com) ### Why was Smith talking about Redick? Because Houston’s offense didn’t just miss shots — it got steered into bad ones. Smith’s postgame explanation was that the Lakers’ switching cut off the usual reads out of Houston’s pick-and-roll game, especially the skip passes to shooters and the pocket passes that feed Alperen Sengun in space. He gave Redick c(nba.com)ond answer, so Houston kept ending up in slower, tougher possessions. (sports.yahoo.com) ### What does “switching” change? It changes the geometry. Instead of fighting over a screen and scrambling behind the play, defenders just trade assignments and stay attached. That can flatten an offense fast if that offense depends on forcing help and then whipping the ball to the open man. It’s a little like closing the obvious exits(sports.yahoo.com)e. That’s what Houston looked like for most of Game 6. (sports.yahoo.com) ### Did the numbers match that explanation? Pretty clearly, yes. Houston shot 35% from the field and 5-for-28 from 3. Jabari Smith Jr. went 1-for-6 from deep, and Reed Sheppard went 1-for-10. Ime Udoka said afterward that scoring only 78 points on that efficiency was not going to be enough even with decent defense. So Smith’s tactical explanation and the box score line up almost perfectly. (nba.com) ### Why is this a bigger deal for Redick? Because first-year playoff runs are where coaching reputations get stress-tested. Redick now has his first playoff series win as Lakers coach, and this one came with visible adjustments after Houston extended the series. That doesn’t mean every decision was perfect. But when an opposing player is the one saying(nba.com) landed. (nba.com) ### What’s next for the Lakers? Now the challenge gets harder. The Lakers move on to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, with Game 1 set for Tuesday in Oklahoma City. So the Redick story shifts quickly — from proving he can close out a young, physical Rockets team to seeing whether those adjustments hold up against a deeper and more explosive opponent. (nba.com) ### Bottom line Houston’s exit was about missed shots on the surface. But Smith’s postgame answer pointed to the deeper thing — the Lakers made the Rockets play a kind of game they didn’t want to play. And for Redick, that’s the sort of compliment coaches care about most.
