The Los Angeles Lakers were stunned by a shorthanded Atlanta Hawks team on Saturday night, ending their five-game winning streak. Head coach JJ Redick didn’t hide his frustration, cutting his post-game press conference short after less than two minutes of terse answers. Yet, while Redick chose silence, one of his players spoke up, offering the words their coach wouldn’t.

Jake LaRavia did not shy away from speaking out the truth after his team’s 122-102 blowout loss against Atlanta. When the 24-year-old forward was asked about his team’s lackluster display and whether the Hawks displayed similar qualities to the shorthanded Lakers team that won in Portland, he said, “Yeah, I mean they they played hard.”

“They just played harder than us on our team, outside of Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt), who had 12 points and 18 rebounds. He was pretty much the only one that was out there hustling and playing hard and giving it his all tonight. And that’s what Atlanta did tonight. They just came out, and they played harder than us,” the Lakers’ No. 12 admitted, who scored 13 that night.

The Lakers forward pointed out that his team just did not come out firing right off the gates, something that Atlanta did. Right from the first play onwards, where the Lakers turned the ball over, handing an easy layup to Zaccharie Risacher, the Purple & Gold never looked like they were in it. While Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia tried to revive their team during the start of the third quarter, that did not work.

They scored four points to cut the deficit to nine, but Los Angeles just couldn’t hold their ground. The Lakers were behind the Hawks in all the quarters except for the fourth. Throughout the game, they were poor in the paint, as well as they also leaked points from deep, as they just could not match the energy that the Hawks showcased throughout the game, despite missing the likes of Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis.

To put it simply, Atlanta was the better team on the night and deserved to win. Nonetheless, even though JJ Redick did not attest to the Atlanta Hawks being the better team and playing harder than his side after his team’s embarrassing performance on Saturday, the Lakers’ head coach did showcase just how disappointed he was with his team.

JJ Redick loses his cool after his team’s disappointing defeat

Even though Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick usually does a good job at keeping his cool during pressers, he couldn’t on Saturday. The second-year Lakers coach gave cold replies to the reporters after the game. It all started when he was asked about what stood out to him tonight, to which he replied, “Not a lot to like tonight.” Well, that wasn’t unexpected as his team snapped their five-game winning streak.

However, it got worse from there. That’s because it was then that another reporter asked Redick about whether he would ignore this loss and dismiss it, moving on to the next game, to which he gave yet another short yet strong reply. “No, we’re going to look at it. For sure,” he said. Well, that’s probably the right way to go about it, as it could help him avoid some of the mistakes that he and his team made tonight.

Nonetheless, no matter how JJ Redick looks at this loss, he’ll have to take this one on the chin and move on. More so, because the Lakers are currently on a five-game road trip that began in Atlanta, now they’ll head to Charlotte, where they’ll face LaMelo Ball and Co. on Monday. So, even though LA couldn’t start this trip with a dub, they should make sure they end this road trip on a high note.