Redick: availability trumps seeding
Coach JJ Redick says the focus has shifted from playoff seeding to figuring out “who’s going to be able to play in the playoffs,” noting that seeding “probably went out the window” after the OKC game. (silverscreenandroll.com) (nytimes.com)
Three games are left in the Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season, and JJ Redick is talking less about climbing the bracket than about which bodies will be standing when the playoffs start on April 18. After the April 2 loss in Oklahoma City, Redick said seeding “probably went out the window” and the question became “who’s going to be able to play in the playoffs.” (silverscreenandroll.com) That change came after one game wrecked two major pieces of the Lakers’ offense. Austin Reaves suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2, and Luka Dončić also went down with a hamstring strain, leaving both out for the rest of the regular season. (nba.com) The standings explain why Redick sounds resigned. As of April 9, the Lakers are 50-29 and sitting fourth in the Western Conference, behind the Oklahoma City Thunder at 63-16, the San Antonio Spurs at 61-19, and the Denver Nuggets at 52-28, with the Houston Rockets right behind Los Angeles at 49-29. (nba.com) That means every remaining game still affects matchup math, but the margin is thin and the cost of pushing too hard is obvious. The Lakers play at Golden State on April 9, then host Phoenix on April 10 and Utah on April 12, which is a brutal closing stretch for a team already missing Dončić and Reaves. (nba.com) Redick’s quote is really a coach admitting the trade changed. A higher seed can buy home court or a softer first-round path, but a playoff team built around LeBron James, Luka Dončić, and Austin Reaves does not work the same way if two of those three are unavailable. (silverscreenandroll.com) LeBron James is the reason the Lakers can still think about surviving the next week instead of just enduring it. Reports ahead of the April 9 Warriors game said James was back after sitting out the Thunder game with a foot issue, even while Dončić and Reaves remained out. (si.com) The calendar makes the gamble easy to see. The regular season ends on April 12, the Play-In Tournament runs from April 14 through April 17, and the full playoffs begin on April 18, so every extra minute now comes out of a recovery window measured in days, not weeks. (nba.com) That is why Redick’s line lands the way it does. A month ago, the Lakers could talk about where they wanted to start the postseason; on April 9, they are talking about whether Dončić, Reaves, and the rest of the rotation can get to that start line at all. (nytimes.com)
