It was all good just a week ago, then the rhythm faltered. Shots stopped falling. The defense dissolved into a forgotten language. The Los Angeles Lakers looked less like playoff contenders and more like a hodgepodge collection of strangers in Atlanta and Oklahoma City.
They needed a spark, for rhythm, for an identity. JJ Redick found it not in film study, practice or a playbook, but in a classic hip-hop album.
He found it in the timeless grooves of Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life, Vol. 2.
In a New Orleans visitor’s locker room, with the sting of recent failure still fresh, head coach JJ Redick reached for the perfect analogy from a classic album.
“I told the team yesterday,” Redick revealed, “a week ago from yesterday, we were practicing in Atlanta. We were 7-2. We were feeling good about ourselves. And then you don’t play well for three games… You’ve got to find moments to recapture what makes you a good basketball team.”
The recapture was absolute. It was a demolition. A 119-95 evisceration of the Milwaukee Bucks on their home floor, a victory so commanding it will reverberate throughout the league.
This is not just a win; without LeBron James active on the roster, it’s a statement. And it was powered by a backcourt operating at its brilliant best and a big man finding his mighty voice.
Luka Dončić, a force of sublime violence, dropped 41 points with the casual cruelty of a grandmaster checkmating a novice.
Against Milwaukee, he attacked, he probed, he dissected. Throughout the night, Dončić was in attack mode.
Getting to the line for 20 free throws, making 18, Dončić wasn’t just scoring; he imposed his will with a relentless assault that broke the Bucks’ will.
Austin Reaves, now liberated from any twinges of his groin injury, served as the perfect counterpoint. With a graceful blend of creativity and determination, Reaves poured in 25 points and appears to be back in the form he displayed before he sustained the injury.
When the Bucks mounted a third-quarter charge, it was Reaves who answered with a flurry of cold-blooded threes, stabilizing the ship with the steady hand of a closer.
But the symphony needed its bass note. It needed the thunder of DeAndre Ayton. The much-maligned big man was a revelation, delivering 20 points and 10 rebounds, his connection with his guards reaching a new, almost telepathic level.
“They’re doing a good job of just keeping that guy on one side and me just getting out the way after that,” Ayton said. “Putting pressure on the rim and just letting them trusting them to be playmakers.”
The essence of the new Lakers is simple: trust, timing and terrifying efficiency. Ayton did more than set screens; he read the game, a chess piece suddenly actualizing and wielding its power.
The result, a first-half masterpiece, a 65-34 lead built on a foundation of defensive fury and offensive precision. They held the Bucks to a season-low point total, a statement of intent that reverberated far beyond the final score. This version of Laker basketball has been a rediscovery.
“It took, you know, 8 to 10 days to figure that out in the preseason,” Redick said of unlocking Ayton. “And once we did… it’s been really awesome to watch him grow with this group and be fully engaged.”
That engagement, that spirit, was the final ingredient. It was in the effort of reserves like Maxi Kleber, who embodied the “Laker spirit” Redick demanded. It was in the team’s collective fight of unvarnished camaraderie to secure the game ball for rookie Adou Thiero after he scored his first points in the NBA.
The trip began with a question mark. It ended with an exclamation point.
They finished the road trip 3-2, but the final impression is one of overwhelming force. Their rhythm is back. The flow has returned.
And as the soul of Shawn Carter provided the soundtrack, the Lakers proved a powerful truth.
