LOS ANGELES — Sometimes you can go through life thinking everything is okay. Then one day, you wake up and realize not only are things bad, but there have been signs that the situation has been rough for a while.
That’s where the Lakers found themselves on Christmas Day after getting blown out at home by the Rockets, 119-96.
Not only, was it their third consecutive loss, but they now find themselves closer to the play-in than the No. 2 seed.
After a game in which LA never led and lost seemingly every
hustle-based statistic, head coach JJ Redick was very blunt about the team’s current state.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said. “That’s the part that bothers you a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don’t care enough to be a professional. We had it…We don’t have it right now.”
Redick often talks about the non-negotiables. He’s been preaching “championship habits” since training camp. And yet, 29 games into the season, the main topic of conversation is still effort on both ends of the floor, communication and players holding each other accountable.
Christmas always offers a marquee matchup and a chance for the Lakers to play on a grand stage against one of the best teams in the NBA. Instead of using it as an opportunity to make a strong statement, the Lakers started the game with the passion of a lazy cat lying on a windowsill on a summer day.
Redick was forced to call two quick timeouts within a two-minute span due to defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets for Houston.
The Rockets were crashing the boards, applying pressure at the rim and had the Lakers spinning, unresponsive and unbothered by the direction the game was heading in.
At the end of the first quarter, Houston had dictated the rules of engagement and established control. While the Rockets are a good team that does this to many teams, this wasn’t an anomaly for LA. Instead, it was a small example of a larger issue: the Lakers start games poorly.
On the season, LA’s starting lineup has an offensive rating of 82.2 in the opening quarter, which is middle of the pack in the NBA. As mediocre as the starting unit’s offense has been in the first quarter, their defense is even worse. They have an opening-quarter defensive rating of 87.7, making them the third-worst in the NBA.
However, even if the Lakers make a change to their starting lineup and insert someone like, say, Marcus Smart, it won’t mean much if everyone in the rotation isn’t ready and willing to give a total effort.
“We need to be the harder-playing team,” Jarred Vanderbilt said. “I feel like these last couple of games, the harder-playing team won. The team that sets the tone early and sets that physicality from the jump. And you got to want to make the 50/ 50 plays, like the loose balls, the offensive rebound and the dirty plays, that’s ultimately win the game.”
Like a fixer-upper home, there are plenty of things with this Lakers team that need repairs. Redick can start by adjusting his starting five and lineups and the players can start by looking in the mirror and deciding what kind of team they want to be.
The next chance to begin making these changes will be on Saturday at Lakers practice, which Redick has already promised will be an “uncomfortable” one with plenty of tough conversations to be had.
The solutions won’t be easy, and if personnel changes don’t happen, perhaps an impactful adjustment is impossible. The one thing everyone can agree on is that this can’t continue.
“I don’t know what has to change, but definitely something needs to change,” Luka Dončić said. “I think we’ve blown out in the last two games. It definitely looks like terrible. But we got to figure it out. That’s the thing we have. We just got to talk about it. Everybody gotta talk about it. I know JJ said it’s gonna be ‘uncomfortable,’ as it should be.”
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
