The Los Angeles Lakers have encountered their share of adversity during JJ Redick's first season as head coach. They traded their franchise player, rebuilt their system around a new focal point, lost the better part of their rotation to injuries at various points of the season, and have overcome losing streaks that seemed to end the season until they didn't.
For as impressive as Redick has been during his debut season as a head coach, the latest list of trials and tribulations will define how his first year is remembered.
It was only three weeks ago when the Lakers were flying high, riding an eight-game winning streak into a monumental rivalry game against the Boston Celtics on Mar. 8. Los Angeles had gone a league-best 20-4 since Jan. 15 and had dug deep to cut Boston's lead to nine with just under seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Since that moment, however, all of the progress that the Lakers made in their rise up the Western Conference standings has effectively been erased.
LeBron James suffered a groin injury with 6:44 remaining in the loss to Boston and missed the next eight games. To make matters worse, starting forward Rui Hachimura had already missed the four games prior, leaving the Lakers without two of their most important players—and the injury bug just wouldn't stop calling from there.
Los Angeles has gone 4-8 since James went down, including an eventual loss to Boston, causing Redick's remarkable first season to teeter on the brink of disaster.
The burning question is: Can Redick save the Lakers from themselves?
Can JJ Redick figure out how to end Lakers' downward spiral?
Los Angeles is still the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, benefiting immensely from the Memphis Grizzlies losing 125-104 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, Mar. 27. Unfortunately, Memphis wasn't the only team to lose that night.
Just 24 hours after the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers on a James tip-in at the buzzer, Josh Giddey hit a game-winner in the four-time MVP's face.
From an outside perspective, it was as poetic a back-to-back as ever written. From the Lakers' view, however, it was a disastrous result that has put immeasurable pressure on the final nine games of the 2024-25 regular season.
The Lakers are only ahead of Grizzlies due to the fact that they're winning the tiebreak, and they'll face the team rivaling them for the No. 4 seed on Saturday, Mar. 29.
To make matters worse, the Lakers are now just 2.5 games ahead of the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. That's a somewhat comforting number with only nine games remaining on their schedule, but their recent results speak to the contrary.
The Lakers effectively have zero margin for error as they toe the invisibly thin line between home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and having to go through the Play-In Tournament.
Injuries are a genuinely valid explanation for what's gone wrong over the past 12 games, but some of the losses were entirely avoidable. That includes the recent Chicago game during which Los Angeles allowed nine points in the final 10.1 seconds.
Brutal losses are suffered by every team, but at this stage of the season, Redick must answer a simple yet burning question: Can he right the ship before it's too late?