JJ Redick liked that the Lakers played angry against the Wizards

After challenging his team following a loss to the Sixers, JJ Redick enjoyed the response from his team against the Wizards on Thursday.

Fresh off a blowout loss in Philadelphia on Tuesday, JJ Redick wanted to see his side respond in a specific way against the Wizards. After a fairly lackadaisical approach to the Sixers loss, Redick challenged his side to have more of an edge in Washington.

The Lakers answered the bell with their most dominant win of the season, routing the Wizards for their most comfortable result of the year. After the contest, Redick was quick to compliment his team’s approach with his first comments of his presser.

“I asked the guys to play with an edge,” Redick said. “I thought they did that. We were the instigators. I did not intend on some of that edge to be taken out on the officials by a couple of our guys but I liked that we were angry tonight. We played angry.”

As he noted, a pair of players did pick up some technicals. Austin Reaves had one in the first half — albeit after the refs missed a blatant foul — and Dalton Knecht was bizarrely tossed from the game in the fourth quarter during garbage time.

Outside of that, though, it was a nearly flawless approach to the game from a mentality standpoint for the Lakers. Multiple times this season, the Lakers have built up a big lead and then watched it slip away before being forced into a closer-than-it-should-be finish.

On Thursday, there was none of that. The Lakers surged ahead and kept their foot on the pedal to close out the game. If they can replicate that approach moving forward, there will be plenty of cause for optimism.

Now, at the same time, it bears mentioning that they did all this against the worst team in the league by some measure in the Wizards. Fans should be careful to take too many big-picture takeaways from beating Washington this season. Basically everyone can do it.

But the Lakers had a fresh and welcome approach to the game against the Wizards and, hopefully, that’s something they can carry on throughout the season.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.