The Los Angeles Lakers nearly squandered a 15-point lead late in Sunday's 131-125 home win over the Toronto Raptors, forcing coach JJ Redick to bring his starters back onto the floor in the final minute.
With the victory seemingly in hand, Redick had turned to Bronny James and other reserves to close out the game. Toronto took full advantage, putting together an 11-1 run fueled by two Lakers turnovers to cut its deficit to 5 points with 43.7 seconds remaining.
After his starters returned to finish the job, Redick didn't mince words about his coaching "mistake."
LA led by as many as 26 points behind Luka Dončić's elite shot-making. The six-time All-Star finished with 45 points and a season-high 15 rebounds against the undersized, Kawhi Leonard-less Raptors, who spent most of the night playing from behind.
Redick took Dončić out with 2:28 left, replacing him with James. Walker Kessler, Austin Reaves, and Matisse Thybulle followed the Slovenian megastar to the bench with 1:43 on the clock.
The Lakers still held a 124-109 edge after a Quentin Grimes free throw 19 seconds later. Then Toronto's reserves went to work. Jamison Battle hit a 3-pointer, Grimes threw a pass that Jaden Bradley picked off, and Battle drilled another triple from 28 feet.
James followed with a careless inbounds turnover, allowing Battle to score again on a floater. After the Lakers' Jaden Hardy split a pair of free throws, Bradley's three-point play made it 125-120 with 43.7 seconds to go, putting the onus on Dončić, Kessler, Reaves, and Thybulle to finish off the feisty unit.
Battle accounted for 8 of Toronto's 11 points in the burst, while James finished with 0 points and a staggering minus-11 plus-minus in just 2 minutes. Hardy and rookie Cameron Carr didn't fare much better, with each recording a minus-9 in just 1 minute of action.
After the late-game scare, Redick took accountability and delivered a blunt message to his end-of-rotation players.
"We just didn't do a good job of taking care of the ball in that situation. So I won't make that mistake again," Redick said. "I'll leave the guys in. You gotta play to the final buzzer, and if guys are not ready to play, then I just won't put them in."
Still, Redick noted that his team "played 44 minutes of really good basketball" and "responded well to a couple of short runs." The Raptors had previously gotten within 109-100 midway through the fourth quarter before Dončić and Reaves scored LA's next 9 points.
Ball security was the exception. The Lakers committed 24 turnovers, and Toronto converted those giveaways into 30 points, a stat the third-year coach attributed to the Raptors "fouling every possession."
Sunday's eventful finish came on the heels of Friday's 112-95 road loss to the Golden State Warriors, in which the Lakers let an early 25-point advantage slip away.
LA (5-2) will look to put together a full 48-minute effort when it hosts the Miami Heat (2-4) on Monday night.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
