JJ Redick is making the message plain for the Lakers: if the open 3 is there, let it fly.
After Los Angeles’ 131-125 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, Redick said he could point to four second-half possessions where his team passed up wide-open looks from deep. His answer was just as direct.
“In the second half, I can think of four times that we turned down wide-open threes,” Redick said. “I’ll take these guys out. You’ve got to shoot when you’re open.”
That warning now hangs over the Lakers as they get ready to host the Miami Heat on Monday. Redick is trying to turn the openings created by Luka Doncic into actual shots, and he made it clear that hesitation can kill a possession even when the advantage is already there.
The issue, as Redick framed it, is not whether every shot falls. It’s whether the Lakers recognize the moment and take it.
He did not say any one player is about to lose a starting spot or fall out of the rotation, and the reporting does not identify who passed up all four of those chances. But the standard was set: if the shot is there, take it.
Redick’s comments about the 3-point line came while he was talking about Doncic’s ability to draw extra attention and create offense. He liked what he saw when defenses committed two players to the ball.
“I think he’s doing a really good job of making plays when there’s two on the ball,” Redick said.
What bothered him was what happened after that. The Lakers had already done the hard part by forcing the defense to react, but the possession could still go stale if the next player hesitated instead of firing or moving the ball quickly.
That’s the part Redick is trying to clean up. An open shooter who pauses gives the defense time to recover, and the clean look can disappear before the possession is finished. The coach wants the Lakers to protect the value of the advantage Doncic creates.
The timing matters, too. Before Sunday’s game, Redick had already acknowledged that his new players are still learning the system and the spacing that comes with it.
“I don’t think they know what our 3-1 spacing is,” Redick said. “We gotta have some patience.”
So the Lakers are dealing with two related problems at once: learning where to be, and then deciding what to do once they get there. A player can be in the right spot and still waste the possession by turning down the shot the offense wants.
Redick also said the team’s newcomers have not yet fully grasped that spacing concept, even after repeated conversations. That makes the shooting issue part of a bigger teaching process, not just a one-night complaint.
After the win, Redick also spoke about Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton. He said all three could eventually start, and he noted the offense they can provide when Doncic and Austin Reaves are off the floor.
That was not a promise of a lineup change for Monday. It was another sign that Redick is still sorting out roles and combinations, with execution tied directly to those decisions.
He also had another frustration from the Toronto game: the late stretch when he pulled his main players, only to put them back in after the Raptors made a push. Redick said the Lakers did not take care of the ball well enough in that sequence, and he suggested he would leave his established players on the floor if the replacements are not ready.
That was a separate issue from the open-3 warning, but the theme was the same. Redick is drawing a hard line on decision-making, whether it’s closing a game or finishing a possession.
Against Miami, the test is simple. When the Lakers create the opening, do they take the shot before it’s gone? Redick has already answered what happens if they don’t.
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