JJ Redick is unhappy with the Lakers’ effort in the loss to Memphis

LeBron James glared at Lakers bench, another chance wasted, another Grizzlies run delivered.

There wasn’t much else he could do Wednesday night in the final game of the Lakers’ first road trip. He had attacked inconsistencies. He had pushed home a triple. He battled like hell with Memphis’ huge front line.

His team was short-handed. Anthony Davis’ heel contusionan injury he suffered Monday in Detroit kept him out. An illness did the same to Rui Hachimura.

Unlike the losses in Cleveland and Detroit that ensured this trip would be a clunker, this wasn’t about battle. The Lakers had proved that.

But as his team watched a two-point deficit turn into an 11-point deficit after Memphis’ three straight threes, James looked to the bench.

It wasn’t anger. It was irritation. The Lakers would eventually lose 131-114 and he couldn’t stop it.

James was fantastic – he scored 39 points, made six threes and played with power. So did his team. They just couldn’t make any shots. And they didn’t do enough of the other things that their leader did.

“I thought LeBron was great tonight,” coach JJ Redick said after the game. “The biggest thing that stood out. I had no idea he hit 39 (points) until (after). I don’t look at the box scores during the game. But he played hard. Almost 40 years old and played the hardest on our team.

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“That says a lot about him.”

And that says a lot about the rest of the Lakers, except for a few like Cam Reddish, who had his second straight strong game.

“None of us are (satisfied with the effort),” Redick said.

Asked later how he addressed it with the team, Redick said it was the first thing he did after the game.

“At the end of the day, especially when you lose weight, you have to compete. You have to compete even harder,” James said. “You’ve got to be out there and give it everything you’ve got and on both ends. I think there were times when we did that, but most of the time I don’t think we kept up the energy and effort.”

Maybe it was all the shots they missed.

D’Angelo Russell put his hands to his head in disbelief as a three rattled out. Austin Reaves yelled at himself after one of his seven misses. And Dalton Knecht, making his first career NBA start, missed all but one of his seven shots from three, including an airball.

Meanwhile, Memphis punished the Lakers with mini-flurries from their role players. Rookie Jaylen Wells hit back-to-back threes. So did former Lakers two-way center Jay Huff. Scotty Pippen Jr., another former Lakers two-way prospect, posed on his former bench after hitting one of his three threes.

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Redick later pulled Russell from the game midway through the third quarter.

“Just (his) level of competition, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked to him about for a couple of weeks,” Redick said when asked about the decision. “And at times he’s been really good at that. And other times it’s just a matter of returning to certain habits. But it wasn’t like a punishment. It just felt like for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the path we wanted to take.”

Yes Morant, who scored 20 points, had to leave the game with a hamstring injury. But when the Grizzlies made 17 threes, they had more than enough.

In addition to the cold shooting, Knecht had to leave the fight after being elbowed in the jaw by Jake LaRavia. After having his jaw examined on the sideline, he went back to the locker room.

He did not receive X-rays in Memphis, but the Lakers had no further information.

The Lakers finished their road trip 1-4. They play Friday at home against Philadelphia, a stretch in which six of their next eight games are in their building.

Pregame, Redick said the ups and downs of the NBA season and the problems that arise are exciting problems to solve. As the team headed home and overcame its first setback of the season, Redick challenged his players.

“It goes back to choices. I think (it’s) something we’ve discussed as a group. And you have a choice every night for how you play — and it has nothing to do with making shots,” he said. “…There’s got to be a group of people, seven, eight guys, that make that choice. And (so) we’re a really good basketball team. (When) we have a handful, we have two or three, we’re not going to be one good basketball team that night.

“So that’s just the reality. That’s, that’s my biggest takeaway, to be honest.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.