JJ Redick Is Not Giving Up on Lakers Despite Falling Behind Thunder 3-0

The Los Angeles Lakers are in serious trouble. Oklahoma City pulled away in the third quarter again to win Game 3, 131-108, and now leads the second-round series 3-0. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series, and the Lakers are staring at that reality.

In the postgame press conference, Lakers head coach JJ Redick was direct about what went wrong and what he still believes about his team.

Turnovers were the turning point. Five of them came in the third quarter alone, and Oklahoma City turned that stretch into a blitz that Los Angeles could not recover from.

"Again, the turnovers, lower number, but they still scored thirty points off those turnovers. We had five of them in the third. I think all of them actually led to them getting fast break transition baskets. I don't know what they ended up being, but I know at one point they were 11-of-17 from three in the second half. You're not getting stops, it's harder to score. Again, the MVP is, 18, 22, 7-of-20 tonight and they've kicked our a** in three-straight games. They're an incredible basketball team."

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP he referenced, finished with 23 points on 7-of-20 shooting. Even in an off-night shooting, he found other ways to hurt the Lakers.

JJ Redick on Why the Lakers Are Not Done Yet

The pattern has been the same throughout the series. Los Angeles hangs around for two-and-a-half quarters, then Oklahoma City pulls away. Redick knows the issue, but he is not throwing in the towel.

"In the third-straight game, we're right there after two-and-a-half quarters, and we tried different lineups, tried different coverages, still lost those minutes again. We've gotta get better. But I'm not giving up on the series, and we're gonna go try to win on Monday. We're gonna try to extend the series, and we're gonna try to take this thing back to OKC."

Part of what makes Oklahoma City so difficult to crack is that they do not have a single exploitable weakness. When asked about the Thunder's roster depth, Redick did not dance around it.

"Again, I think it's, typically, if you can poke holes at a team in a playoff series, there's a good chance they might have a temporary solution or can sort of adjust maybe a little bit. This team, in-game, because of their personnel can just adjust like that. They need shooting on the floor, great. They need multiple wing defenders on the floor, great. They need two bigs on the floor, great. It's just, it's, they're a terrific basketball team. I said that before the series. Been very impressed with them. Still think we can beat them but we gotta be better."

The Thunder are now 7-0 in these playoffs, and the Lakers are without Luka Doncic, who has missed 14 straight games with a hamstring strain. Game 4 is next, and Los Angeles needs a win just to keep the series alive.

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