JJ Redick is unhappy with the Lakers' performance in the loss to Memphis

LeBron James glared at the 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 disagreements. He had achieved triple success. He fought like hell with the huge Memphis front line.

His team was understaffed. Anthony Davis' bruised heel, an injury he suffered Monday in Detroit, kept him out of action. An illness did the same to Rui Hachimura.

Unlike the losses in Cleveland and Detroit that ensured this trip would be a mess, this one wasn't about a fight. That’s what the Lakers showed up for.

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

It wasn't anger. It was desperation. The Lakers would end up losing 131-114, and he couldn't stop it.

James was great – he scored 39 points, made six three-pointers and played with power. His team did too. They just couldn't make shots. And they didn't do enough of the other things their leader did.

“I think LeBron was fantastic tonight,” coach JJ Redick said after the game. “The biggest thing that stood out. I had no idea he had reached 39 [points] until [after]. I don't look at the box scores during the game. But he played hard. He is almost 40 years old and played the hardest on our team.

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“That says a lot about him.”

And it says a lot about the rest of the Lakers, aside from a few like Cam Reddish, who had his second straight strong game.

“None of us are [satisfied with the effort]said Redick.

Asked later how he addressed the issue 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 bodies, you have to compete. “You have to compete even harder,” James said. “You’ve got to go out there and give it everything you’ve got on both ends. I think there were times when we did that, but most of the time I don’t think we were able to maintain the energy and the effort.”

Maybe it was all the shots they missed.

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

Meanwhile, Memphis punished the Lakers with minor disturbances from their role players. Rookie Jaylen Wells hit back-to-back three-pointers. The same was true for Jay Huff, the Lakers' former two-way center. Scotty Pippen Jr., another former Lakers two-way prospect, posed at his former bench after hitting one of his three three-pointers.

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

“Only [his] Competitive level, attention to detail, some of the things we've been talking to him about for a few weeks,” Redick said when asked about the decision. “And sometimes he was really good at it. And sometimes it's just a matter of returning to certain habits. But it wasn't a punishment. We just felt like we had a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take.”

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

In addition to the cold shooting, Knecht had to leave the game after Jake LaRavia elbowed him in the jaw. After having his jaw checked on the sidelines, he went back to the locker room.

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

The Lakers finished their road trip 1-4. They play Philadelphia at home on Friday, a stretch that will see six of their next eight games in their building.

Before the game, Redick said the ups and downs of the NBA season and the issues that arise present exciting problems to solve. As the team headed home and dealt with the first adversity of the season, Redick challenged his players.

“It comes back to choices. I find [that’s] something we discussed as a group. And you have a choice every night about how you play – and it has nothing to do with shot execution,” he said. “…There has to be a group of people, seven, eight people, who make this decision. And [then] We are a really good basketball team. [When] We have a handful, we have two or three, we are not going to be a good basketball team that night.

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

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.