JJ Redick's complaint after the Lakers' opener: Why are we playing with brand new basketballs?

LOS ANGELES – JJ Redick wants his Lakers team to shoot a lot more threes than they did a season ago, and in half of their opening game against the Timberwolves they did that, shooting 19. The problem? They only did two of them. In the game, the Lakers were 5 of 30 from distance.

You can argue that's because it was a bad night, or, more plausibly, because the Lakers aren't a team with great shooters, so those nights will happen. Redick had another complaint that he felt turned off his team: a brand new, unbroken basketball that was being used. And he'll let the league know about it.

“I'm going to send a request to the league tomorrow that we can play with worn-out basketballs,” Redick said after the game, drawing some laughs from the assembled media. “I'm not sure why we're playing in real games – I'm absolutely serious – I'm not sure why we're playing in real games with brand new basketballs. Anyone who has ever touched a brand new NBA ball feels different than a worn out basketball.

“I only noticed it after a break. There was a long rebound, I grabbed it. I thought, 'What? Why are we playing with this ball? “Give the guys a chance to pick some good basketball.”

“You think I’m joking – I’m neurotic.”

Redick isn't kidding – he was an elite shooter as a player who had his own preferences about what he wanted from a ball – but I'd like to see the look on league officials' faces when this complaint comes in. Minnesota was, by the way. He used the same ball and shot 13 of 41 (31.7%) from three, not great, but better than Los Angeles.

Redick's neuroses worked for the Lakers on opening night. This season, there was a lot more movement in the Lakers' offense and a lot less LeBron James standing at the top of the key pounding the ball into the ground and trying to run the show (LeBron was off the ball a lot more often). Anthony Davis was in a much better position to succeed, and the result was a dominant 36-point, 16-rebound performance in which he was the best player on the court. The Lakers gave up the 3-point shot in the second half because, as Redick noted after the game, they were able to make good shots inside – Los Angeles scored 72 points on 59 shots in the zone.

“The paint was open in the second half,” Redick said. “We made, I think, 19 3s in the first half, which is about the pace we want to hit for our season average in terms of a complete game, and we got some great looks. And there were even some threes in the second half that I thought were wide open and we just couldn't knock them down.”

These Lakers were more along the lines of the 2022-23 version, where teams bullied inside and did so all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

It's just one of 82, but it's as good a start as Redick and the Lakers could have hoped for, controlling the game and knocking out a Timberwolves team that was in the Western Conference Finals a season ago (albeit with a different squad in important positions). ).

And imagine how much better they look playing with broken basketballs.