JJ Redick gives surprising reaction to Celtics rout of Lakers

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JJ Redick gives surprising reaction to Celtics rout of Lakers

Brian Robb · MassLive

Sat, Dec 6, 2025 ·

3 min read

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BOSTON — The Celtics had their way with the shorthanded Lakers on Friday night, leading by double digits for the final three quarters on their way to a 126-105 blowout victory.

The Celtics took command of the game by outscoring the Lakers by 22 points in the first quarter thanks to some hot 3-point shooting and stout defense. The Lakers never mounted a serious comeback without having much scoring firepower active beyond Austin Reeves (36 points). However, JJ Redick was not displeased with his team’s effort after the setback. Instead, he attributed the big loss mostly to bad shooting luck for the visitors.

“Look, expected score we were down two at hal time, expected score we won by two,” Redick said. “First half, we had the highest paint touch rate we’ve had in a half, or one of the highest paint touch rates we’ve had. We’ve been one of the best non-rim paint two teams in the league. We shot five for 13.

“They blitzed us from the three and in that first half. We outscored them by one in the last three quarters. Unfortunately, that’s not how basketball works, and you end up losing the game by 21 so I thought our fight was good. There were a lot of moments when we certainly could have broken and we didn’t. It’s a credit to our guys.”

The Celtics shot a season-best 53 percent from 3-point range in the victory with seven different players hitting multiple 3-point field goals. Redick admitted that his team gambled leaving some starters open and the strategy backfired.

“ Jaylen Brown is a low 30% off the dribble 3-point shooter. He hits three threes in a row in the third quarter. Jordan Walsh , we were willing to live with his threes, we’ve got to give up something, he hits four of them. We ended up getting a contest on three of them. So again, you’ve got to be willing to live with certain things, and they made us pay. We’ve obviously done that many times, and they made us pay tonight.”

Several teams are having trouble contain the Celtics offense lately beyond just the Lakers as Boston currently sits third in offensive efficiency in the NBA. With nine wins in their last 11 games, there aren’t a lot of answers opposing defenses have at this point to contain a versatile offensive attack.

“I like our energy and effort,” Payton Pritchard said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s funny. Our offense is third, but I still feel like we have another step that we can even go. So that will be exciting. But I think our energy and effort, and that everybody’s playing really hard.”

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