JJ Redick admits he and the Lakers failed LeBron James in their latest loss to the Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers were playing well against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, but they could not beat the defending champions. OKC won 119-110, an impressive result for the Lakers given Luka Doncic's absence.

LeBron James led the way for the Lakers with a decent line of 22 points, six rebounds, and 10 assists. His highest-scoring teammate was Marcus Smart, who had 19, while Austin Reaves had 16. 

Redick felt they could have maximized James' performance

For the first three quarters, James was playing quite well. The offense was running through him, as he was scoring and making some big-time plays.

Unfortunately, that faded away in the fourth quarter, as the Lakers were quite passive. Considering James was the driving force for the first three quarters, not giving him touches was the biggest mistake the Lakers made during the game.

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After the game, Redick was pleased with the team's effort, but their execution was lacking. Considering their best player was out injured, they had to rely on James and Reaves, who just returned to the active lineup recently.

That should have meant that James would get the most touches to maximize his good performance. Unfortunately, Redick and the Lakers did not get James his deserved touches much in crunch time.

"I don’t think we did a good job on getting LeBron ball. Some of that was that we called the plays, but we didn’t execute. Some of that was just not having the recognition," Redick said in his post-game interview.

"Him playing against smaller players was how we got back in the game. And we didn’t do a good job of getting him the ball."

In the long run, the Lakers should know which player they can rely on to carry them. Doncic has been the obvious choice for the most part, but James is still a huge star despite his age. Relying on him should be normal for the Lakers.

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