JJ Redick emphasized screening to Lakers, was pleased with execution vs. Suns

With LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the floor, Lakers coach JJ Redick saw his team perform at a high level offensively. That came after Redick emphasized, and watched his team execute, good screening.

The Lakers had many firsts in their second preseason game. Fans saw JJ Redick’s starting five together, the first father-son duo to share the floor in the NBA and an offense that executed at a high level.

The first half had a serious tone, with the Lakers largely playing their regular season rotation. During that, they were dominant, outscoring the Suns 67-59 after two quarters.

It wasn’t just the fact that they outproduced the Suns that was positive, but how they did it. The Lakers were flying all over the court, screening, re-screening, inverting pick and rolls and doing it all so fast that Phoenix was struggling to react.

The Lakers lost the game, 118-114, but big picture-wise, it was a good day. In his postgame availability, Redick shared what he liked from his team.

“I was happy overall with how we played tonight,” Redick said. “I thought the first half, our screening was really good. Sharing the basketball was really good. We got it to our best players in good spots for them. I was happy with how we executed...I thought overall our activity level defensively was good.”

The Suns definetly struggled early on against the Lakers. They shot 37% from the field and had nine turnovers during the opening half of play. Los Angeles, on the other hand, was able to share the ball well with 16 assists.

In game one of the preseason, the focus was on the level of compete from the Lakers. In the second contest, Redick focused on screening and saw better execution.

“Screening was something that I really emphasized and I thought in the first half, we did a good job screening,” Redick said. “That allowed us to get some layups. It allowed us to get some threes. It allowed us to get some overreactions to the basketball.”

Having LeBron James and Anthony Davis play undoubtedly helped the Lakers look better in their second game. There was an increase in 3-point attempts from 32 to 40 and, when LeBron and AD are on the floor, getting those overactions Redick desires is much easier.

The Lakers will have four more games to tighten up their play and prepare for the regular season, but the Redick era has begun with a breath of fresh air and a level of structure unseen from the previous coach.

The biggest question mark is whether it will result in more wins, but we won’t get those answers till later.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.