Most of the time, NBA teams do whatever they can to fight off distractions. Monday, the Lakers couldn’t have been more thrilled to have one.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis had to evacuate their homes. JJ Redick lost his. The rebuild hasn’t even begun, another round of winds keeping red-shaded swaths of the city on edge.
But Redick, one of the most public faces of these fires, knew this would be a chance to think about something else, temporary as that might be.
“I think a group functions best when you draw strength from each other. And the way my players, my staff, the organization has supported, rallied around me — rallied around the city, clearly — loved on my family, there’s real strength in that. And that’s the sort of receiving of strength. Then it’s our job to go give strength, and give hope and give joy,” Redick said before the game. “Sports are a lot of things and sports can certainly provide an escape and a distraction and hopefully sports, and tonight, can provide some joy as well.”
Read more: Lakers coach JJ Redick vows to help rebuild L.A. after losing home in fire
Through that lens, this was all a success — fans soaking in the moments where James and Davis tried to solve Victor Wembanyama’s 7-foot-3 frame after fires postponed the Lakers last two games.
The distraction from the outside world, the actual game, though, again exposed some of the Lakers’ issues inside the basketball one, a team again attacking them with more physicality and toughness, the Spurs deflating the crowd and surging to a 126-102 win — the Lakers’ third straight loss coming at a time when what was happening off the court mattered so much more.
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Just, we come out and play — win, lose, draw — this game is over and everything’s still going on in the world,” Davis said. “So, bittersweet in a sense because we still have people who are dealing with real life situations. And we get to go out here and play basketball. So it’s kinda tough.
“Obviously, we still have a job to do and at some point, we’re going to have to play basketball again, go back to work. We tried to, obviously, get this win. We never want to lose. But with the Rams winning and … us trying to, get the win and bring a little bit of joy to the city, for a little bit.”
Davis and James combined to score 48 on 20-of-29 shooting, but the Lakers’ supporting cast struggled. Austin Reaves got targeted by the Spurs’ offense after they pulled Davis away from the rim. They pushed and shoved through Rui Hachimura and Max Christie.
And the Lakers offered little fight in return, allowing 73 second-half points.
“The point of attack was not good tonight, and I’ll have to look at the film,” Redick said. “I turned to (assistant Ty Abbott), who had the scout today, and I just was like, ‘Man, feels like there’s no one to the paint for us.’ That’s what I saw in real time. Obviously, I’ll have to look at the tape, but everything was at the rim — 66 points in the paint. That’s tough.”
The loss came with their offense unraveling in the fourth quarter when the team scored only 13 points.
Trouble came late in the third, with the Lakers up 10 before San Antonio blitzed them for 10 consecutive points without Redick or the bench calling a timeout. San Antonio’s run continued into the fourth.
“We were eager to play basketball again in front of our fans. Sucks that we weren’t able to get to win,” Davis said.
In addition to their first game back after the wildfire postponements, the Lakers went ahead with a planned celebration for their past.
At halftime, the team retired Michael Cooper’s No. 21, the culminating achievement after Cooper’s career earned him a spot in the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame class.
Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon, Byron Scott and Pat Riley were among the former Lakers who were on hand for the ceremony.
Cooper had been a part of some of their celebrations; this was his turn.
“I’ve always tried to play the game the right way. And it’s such a good feeling that people recognize that,” Cooper said. “Although I’ve always been on a team with a lot of mega stars, so sometimes I got overshadowed, but that didn’t bother me because it was about the body of work that we were putting together and winning championships. So for my turn to be, come to the plate and step up here and be on the podium by myself with everybody looking is very, very good. Because again, like I said, this came out of nowhere.”
That celebration was one of the final few feel-good moments of the night. But it wasn’t the last.
As Lakers players walked off the court deflated, Redick headed to midcourt where Wembanyama and Chris Paul gave Redick’s sons, Knox and Kai, their jerseys. The children lost a number of treasured pieces of memorabilia in the Palisades fire.
“(Chris Paul) called me this afternoon and said, ‘Vic and I are gonna go, whether you win or we win, we’re gonna go over and give the boys jerseys,’” Redick said. “He’s well-aware they’re huge NBA fans. … I ran a podcast out of my home for two years and all the players would come through and they would get either a jersey or a card signed. They had a collection of jerseys and cards, and they lost all that. So it was nice of them to do it. They now each have two because Austin (Reaves) was nice enough to leave a couple for them in his locker after practice the other day. So I just, again, appreciate all the love.”
It was a reminder that Monday, back to basketball was still rocky. But at least it was back to something.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
