The honeymoon period for the Los Angeles Lakers’ new-look backcourt hit a turbulent patch against the crosstown rivals. Playing against the LA Clippers in the Intuit Dome, the box score showed another productive night for Luka Doncic. On the way to 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists, the Lakers star crossed 4,000 career assists. Now most of those assists were from his Dallas tenure. JJ Redick expects more in LA from the team’s playmaker.

Once more, Redick had a blunt assessment of the team’s overall performance tonight. “Just a poor job,” he opened the post-game presser with. There were the usual problems: poor defense, no offensive cohesion, and lack of ball movement in the second half. But also another glaring issue Redick felt was missing.

“Just defensive coverage execution and then just didn’t trust each other enough. Not enough passing.”

The Lakers (24) had one assist more than the Clippers (23). The Lakers outmatched the Clippers in almost all the statistical contests, in fact. They had double the steals (14) and half the turnovers (10). The Clippers didn’t have a single block. Individually, though, it was the James Harden-Ivica Zubac combo that stunned. Harden even had the game-high 10 assists.

Yet on a night Doncic’s 4k career assists rank him among the best playmakers in NBA history, JJ Redick demanded accountability. “There’s got to be a trust factor with all our guys just to, you know, trust the pass. And that starts with Luka,” Redick said.

The critique became even more surgical when Redick emphasized that while everyone needs to improve, the responsibility starts with the man holding the ball. “He’s going to have the ball the most of everyone; he’s got to trust the pass. If he gets two on him, you know, he’s playing in a crowd, he’s got to pass the ball. And I think as much as we could talk about being connected on defense, you’ve got to be connected on offense.”

Doncic’s newest record only puts more scrutiny on him. And his coach is amping the pressure to lead the effort.

Lack of playmaking hits Lakers

Tonight just proved that statistics don’t win a game. Despite outscoring the Clippers 16-7 to start the fourth quarter, coming off a 26 point defecit, and cutting the lead to just two points following a Luka Doncic fadeaway, the home team pulled a late surge. What went wrong? The playmaker didn’t make plays.

One of the Lakers’ well-known habits since the days of Kobe Bryant was a critical case of “hero ball” syndrome. While Bryant was well known for not dishing dimes, his individualistic play couldn’t be criticized when he won with unrelenting offense till the clock ran out.

This is a critical stretch for the Lakers that’s trying to break bad habits and come out of midseason slump. Redick points out that Doncic has demonstrated a level of selfish play in games they’ve lost.

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Doncic has taken responsibility for tonight’s mistakes. But he hasn’t responded to Redick’s comments. However, this is the bluntest critique Redick has had for his point guard. With the Lakers set to visit Doncic’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks, on Saturday, the pressure is on for the superstar to lead a connected offensive unit.