JJ Redick’s brutally honest admission about Kevin Durant’s Game 1 injury

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers did not find out that Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant was going to be sidelined for Game 1 of their opening round playoff series until a little over an hour before tip-off. Rockets head coach Ime Udoka dropped the news right at the beginning of his pregame press conference, but for Lakers head coach JJ Redick, nothing changed the team’s approach.

Following the Lakers’ 107-98 win against the Rockets in Game 1, JJ Redick stressed that the team’s playoff preparation trumps whoever was on the court.

“I don’t think it affected our mentality at all. This is all we’ve talked about for two months. It’s just our playoff mentality, and you can’t worry about who’s in or out of the lineup. It’s our game plan, it’s our standards, it’s how we play,” Redick said.

“And we’ve built towards that. And I thought our guys responded well and met the moment … There’s a lot that you have to do with Kevin, and you just kind of scrap that and move on to all the other stuff we worked on.”

Aside from a few hiccups throughout the night, the Lakers were in control for the majority of Game 1. They led at the end of every quarter, and by the second half, they gradually pushed their lead to double digits. The habits and mindset that the team had preached during practice were on full display despite being short-handed themselves.

Redick stressed coming into the game that is was going to have be an all-hands-on-deck type of effort from the Lakers in order to compete in this series. For Lakers star LeBron James, all of the work the team had put in during their full week of practice paid off. He echoed Redick’s sentiments that no Durant in the lineup didn’t really change the way the team approached the game.

“We spent a lot of time this week, the week leading up to this game on what we need to do offensively because it’s just a different style how we play now,” James said after the win. “Our game plan didn’t change that much as far as who we’re going against. Obviously getting the news late, the late scratch of KD changed some of our situational things, but that team is still dangerous. Even more dangerous with KD obviously. But they’re still dangerous, and I thought we handled it with a lot of professionalism.”

The Lakers will have two days in between before Game 2 on Tuesday of next week. The series will then shift to Houston for Games 3 and 4.

The post JJ Redick’s brutally honest admission about Kevin Durant’s Game 1 injury appeared first on ClutchPoints.