JJ Redick finally did it! After two brutal losses, the rookie head coach finally got his first preseason win tonight. And it was the Milwaukee Bucks who had to face defeat for JJ’s accomplishment. Sure enough, it took a valiant effort from the Lakers to get the job done as both Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo were playing tonight. Although The Greek Freak looked unstoppable as always, Redick’s squad was able to shut down Dame. And the head coach revealed exactly how they did it.

During the postgame interview, JJ was asked if there were any preset goals that the Lakers were able to accomplish tonight. And the head coach replied, “Yeah, again we didn’t necessarily gameplan but we gave them three things pregame that we truthfully haven’t had a ton of time to work on.”

Sure enough, the first one was limiting Lillard’s offense. “One was our pick and roll coverage with Dame, which conceptually we haven’t practiced once.” And he commended Max Christie and other Lakers’ big men for executing the plan brilliantly and holding Dame to just 8 points. Then, he even highlighted the lack of practice time the team had to work on their plans.

“We gave them some veer to pop against their popping bigs. We executed it a little bit, not great. We’ve had about five minutes in practice. That’s all the time we’ve had so far to practice that.” But that five-minute practice was good enough to get the job done tonight.

In the Bucks’ previous game, Lillard had a decent outing and scored 15 points. So, keeping him in single digits and coming out with a win would be a big momentum builder for Redick. However, there were some areas where the Lakers fell short.

JJ Redick acknowledges Lakers’ bad transition defense due to lack of ‘Practice Day’

While shutting down Dame was a big success, the Lakers had no answer for Giannis’ dominance. Making his preseason debut tonight, The Greek Freak went off for 20 points. And JJ revealed that his team got very little time to prepare for the challenge. “Then you know our loads and transition to Giannis, which we showed them on tape you know, that’s what we had time for.”

Traveling to Milwaukee for the game, the Lakers did not get time to run their planned plays as JJ remarked, “Would’ve been nice to have a practice day yesterday but them’s the brakes.” And he called out one major flaw that the team showed tonight. “Our transition defense in the first half was not great overall.”

Surely, it’s not easy keeping up with the fast pace and insane athleticism of Giannis. However, the head coach did praise his players after the win, saying, “I thought the group that played the first half did a nice job.”

Well, JJ is still learning and some of his plans will do wonders while others will fall flat. And that’s just part of the process. But tonight’s win will surely boost his and the team’s confidence for the upcoming season.