LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick downplayed his mid-game shouting match with Jarred Vanderbilt on Tuesday night time, calling it a standard incidence throughout a tense time for his injury-depleted group.

Redick and Vanderbilt repeatedly exchanged phrases in a visual, vocal argument after Redick known as a timeout and eliminated Vanderbilt from the Lakers’ recreation towards Oklahoma Metropolis simply 16 seconds into the second quarter.

Redick stated the argument was attributable to “only a confluence of issues,” declining to be particular about what Vanderbilt had executed fallacious.

“Nothing private with him,” Redick added. “Regular stuff from my finish. I believe for all of us, being undermanned, we’ve obtained to scrap and claw. We’ve obtained to all be on the identical web page. We have to be nice teammates. We have to all play onerous. I known as a timeout to get him out of the sport, and he reacted.”

After Redick known as the timeout, Vanderbilt approached him on the court docket. When Vanderbilt grew to become demonstrative, Austin Reaves — who did not play attributable to damage — stepped between his teammate and the pinnacle coach, together with assistant coach Nate McMillan.

Vanderbilt continued the dialogue when Redick sat on the bench after the timeout, and Redick made a dismissive gesture in Vanderbilt’s route that appeared to annoy Vanderbilt additional.

Vanderbilt didn’t return to the sport after being pulled, and he left the Lakers’ downtown enviornment with out talking to reporters.

Vanderbilt made his solely shot and had two rebounds and a steal throughout his 4 1/2 minutes of play, however he additionally missed three consecutive free throws proper earlier than the first-quarter buzzer. The defensive specialist has performed inconsistent minutes for Redick this season, struggling to convey his offensive recreation as much as a stage that may enable him to be a rotation common.

Los Angeles confronted the Thunder with out NBA scoring chief Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Reaves, Marcus Good and Jaxson Hayes attributable to damage, and the end result was predictable: Oklahoma Metropolis routed the Lakers 123-87, sending them to their third consecutive loss after profitable 13 of their earlier 14.

The defeat was Los Angeles’ first at house since Feb. 24, ending a 10-game profitable streak. The Lakers (50-29) slipped a full recreation behind streaking Denver (51-28) for the third seed within the Western Convention playoff image, whereas solely the tiebreaker is conserving the Lakers above the surging Houston Rockets (50-29) in fifth for now.

Till Doncic and Reaves each have been misplaced for the remainder of the common season — and possibly longer — throughout the Lakers’ blowout loss at Oklahoma Metropolis every week in the past, they have been surging towards a top-three seed with hopes of a big playoff run. Whereas Redick hasn’t publicly given up on that probability, he acknowledged earlier than the sport that any try to play for higher seeding “most likely went out the window after the (first) OKC recreation.”

Redick did not mince many phrases about his wholesome gamers after the Lakers’ lowest-scoring efficiency of the season — an effort that inexplicably included 17 missed free throws.

“We’ve obtained to seek out 9 guys which are, like, all in on us combating,” Redick stated. “No matter you’ve obtained to do to exit and struggle and be all in on the group, we’ll discover the 9 guys. It’s a terrific alternative for us over the following three video games to seek out these guys.”

The coach stated he known as an earlier timeout to take away Rui Hachimura from the sport as a result of the ahead “did not do his job.”

Redick additionally stated beginning heart Deandre Ayton has “had bother catching the ball. We have had a bunch of performs for him. He is simply had bother catching the ball, and I do not know if that is the passing or him making an attempt to get place. He simply hasn’t been capable of catch the ball.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA