When it involves dissecting an anticipated game, you can always expect some drama. Especially if the people involved are former players of the NBA. Yes, it’s the LA Lakers vs Denver Nuggets game. With two dominant teams, the stakes were high on both. The most anxious out of all –  Lakers’ new head coach, JJ Redick. Reports stated that he pulled quite a few all-nighters for the game plan. And the master plan was to stop Nikola Jokic at all costs by making him stay as far away as possible from the paint.

Denver suffered an upset loss to the Lakers on Saturday with 123 -100 at the Ball Arena. Yes, despite being favored more as per SportsLine consensus. The Lakers are totally killing it. Already on their nine-game winning streak! And the credit? Of course, to head coach JJ Redick. He just had one advice to give to his team: “You try to limit his touches.” And who is this directed at? The Denver machine, Nikola Jokic. And what’s more, it worked! Quite well, at that.

As expected, Joker achieved another triple-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. But he recorded a season-low shot. The other outcome? Jokic became the topic for the start of a heated discussion for the game analysts, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

In the latest episode of Inside the NBA, while talking about the Denver vs Lakers game, Kenny expresses that Jokic just happened to have a ‘flat game’. But Chuck disagrees. He believes that the Lakers intentionally made it happen. Further explaining he says, “The way they played to Joker, JJ Redick had one of the best game plans I have ever seen against the Joker. He played a small guy on him the whole game. They picked him up the full length of the court and every time he got the ball, they doubled. They really got flustered. Nobody knew what to do. That was one of the best coaching jobs I’ve seen.” Well, the Lakers did round Joker in the entire time. The Nuggets center had no choice but to pass the ball. Imagine only being able to take 7 shots!

Now, the big question arises: Will the Lakers be able to double down on Jokic in every single game? There’s a huge chance of turnover. We are talking about Nikola Jokic here – a player who is widely considered one of the best in the league at present. Then again, the mastermind of the Lakers just might devise a new strategy. Do you remember how it all started with a podcast?

Making ideas come alive with Lebron James and JJ Redick

In 2016, fans got to experience a new side of the Little Emperor when he joined the podcast ‘Mind the Game’ by JJ Redick. The authentic and unrestricted side off-court. That’s not all. The podcast itself was one of a kind. And why would that be? Well, Redick was still an active player for the Clippers. That made him the first NBA player who had a weekly podcast during the league’s season. It basically explains the Xs and Os of basketball for the hardcore fans as well as muggles.

In the 3 episode of the podcast, LeBron and Redick discussed the hardest actions to guard in basketball. LeBron brought up how he wanted to do coverage on the Pick the Picker B-O-B (Baseline Out of Bounds). Conversations flowed and LeBron talked about how insanely hard it is to guard Joker’s team because of the way they guard the screen and shooter coordinates. Just then, a brilliant idea popped up in Redick’s mind. The way to stop Joker. Triple-defense line or two big men to guard. It was a theory he proposed.

As we can see from the result, JJ Redick’s brilliant theory is indeed applicable in real games. And boy, was it fruitful? He’ll be with the Lakers for the next four years. Perhaps we can expect some more excellent ideas and gameplay from the LeBron-Redick duo.