JJ Redick wonders where Lakers’ ‘collective brains’ were in loss vs. Sixers

With the Lakers turning the ball over and blowing defensive assignments versus the Sixers, a loss became inevitable.

Once Anthony Davis went down in the first quarter, the Lakers' performance in Philadelphia quickly went south. The Sixers dominated the rest of the game and cruised to a 118-104 victory.

The score fails to tell the story of how badly the Lakers lost. They were outscored 48-32 in the second quarter, grabbed only four offensive rebounds compared to the Sixers’ 12 and had 22 turnovers in the game.

After the defeat, Lakers head coach JJ Redick tried to explain his team's lack of execution.

“I’m not sure where our collective brains were at,” Redick said. “I understand the physical fatigue. We were a step slow all night on Maxey .... And then, I mean, frankly, you’re not going to win a game if somebody takes 19 more shots than you and gets eight more offensive rebounds. We were throwing the ball everywhere. I think that is just, again, fatigue, mental and physical, just bad decision-making. Poor execution, very unorganized throughout the game. Not our best.”

Sixers guard Maxey was absolutely dominant and the Lakers had no answers for him on Tuesday. He ended the night with a game-high 43 points. A lot of those baskets happened while LeBron James was defending him.

James struggled all night, just like the rest of the team did. He had eight turnovers and didn’t make much of an effort on defensive rotations. The Lakers never made a run in the fourth and LeBron ended his night early, playing for just 33 minutes.

Postgame, LeBron held himself accountable and discussed the team's need to improve to get back in the win column.

“Just got to be better,” James said. “We can’t make the same mistakes. We can’t allow teams to get out and run. We had too many turnovers tonight that resulted in too many buckets for them. We don’t have a lot of room for error. When we make errors, teams usually make us pay. So we got to be better and it also starts with me to being one of the primary ball-handlers.”

This isn’t the first time James has acknowledged the Lakers have little room for error. He shared similar sentiments back in a December loss versus the Hawks.

With Davis out for at least a week, the Lakers' margin for error has shrunken. They will have to be even more focused during the remainder of this road trip.

They have a winnable game coming up next versus the Wizards on Thursday, but after that, the next couple of games will be in New York versus the Knicks and back in Los Angeles for another Clippers game.

Those matchups will be blowout losses if the Lakers don’t bring their best.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.