J.J. Redick ‘challenged’ Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic, LeBron James in meeting before win vs. Grizzlies

Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers picked up just the second win across their last six games played over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night, and they came out on top by seven points behind brilliant play from arguably their three best players.

Every one of guard Luka Doncic, forward LeBron James and guard Austin Reaves scored 25-plus points for the storied franchise. They also all dished out eight or more assists in the contest.

Before Doncic, James and Reaves starred for Los Angeles against star Jaren Jackson Jr. and company, Lakers head coach J.J. Redick allegedly gathered the trio together for a meeting.

“With the Los Angeles Lakers looking to salvage some momentum on their four-game road trip that featured a gut-punch loss on a half-court buzzer-beater by the Chicago Bulls, Lakers coach J.J. Redick gathered LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for a meeting in Memphis on Saturday morning,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin wrote.

Redick has since said that he “challenged” James, Doncic and Reaves during the meeting.

“We challenged all three of them when we get to their three-man actions to play with a little more force and a little more thrust and a little more creativity,” Redick said.

Reaves weighed in on what took place during the meeting and described it as “a conversation about how bad all of us want to win and win at a high level.”

“I think the meeting was just still trying to build that chemistry amongst the three of us to help the team be successful,” Reaves said. “Tonight, it just showed that when we play the right way and trust one another, especially offensively, we can have open looks on almost every possession. … It was really just a conversation about how bad all of us want to win and win at a high level.”

Not long after the meeting was held, the Lakers beat a Grizzlies team that had star guard Ja Morant back in the lineup for the first time in several games. He hadn’t taken the floor since Memphis’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 14 prior to his 22-point, 10-assist performance on Saturday. He shot 9-of-23 from the floor in his first game played in over two weeks.

Doncic and James are two of the league’s premier offensive players, but Reaves was potentially the best player on the court for Los Angeles versus the Grizzlies. He dropped a team-high 31 points and scored the ball with commendable efficiency, as he shot 8-of-16 from the field and 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

Reaves has been on a scoring tear for the Lakers in the month of March. In that stretch, he’s averaging 24.2 points per game on 48.2 percent shooting from the floor and 36.5 percent from deep.

He will hope to finish off a strong March on a high note when the Lakers play their last game of the month against the Houston Rockets on Monday night. Houston owns the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference right now and is three games ahead of Los Angeles in the standings.