Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s patience is starting to wear thin. After his team’s embarrassing 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day, Redick issued an ultimatum to his team, asking them to fix their defensive issues or risk losing their spots in the rotation.
Redick revealed the Lakers will have an “uncomfortable” meeting on Saturday, ahead of Sunday’s home fixture against the Sacramento Kings, where he plans to go over his coaching staff’s defensive schemes again.
“Saturday’s practice — I told the guys — it’s going to be uncomfortable,” Redick said, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Lakers: Horrible 10-Game Stretch
The Lakers (19-10), who started the season with a 15-4 record, have dropped six of their last 10 games. During this stretch, they’ve been outscored by 9.6 points, while allowing opponents to average 117.4 points at 49% shooting. Worryingly, the Lakers have lost the six games by an average margin of 18.6 points, becoming the first team since the 1990-91 Heat to lose their first nine or more games of the season by double digits.
Lakers’ leading scorer, Luka Doncic, who returned to the lineup Thursday after a calf contusion, admitted that “a change” was needed to right the ship.
“I don’t know what has to change, but definitely something needs to change,” Doncic said, via ESPN. “Think we [were] blown out the last three games. It definitely looks, like, terrible. We got to figure out, that’s the thing we have [to do]. … We just got to talk about it. Everybody got to talk about it. I know JJ said it’s going to be uncomfortable [for everybody]. As they should be.”
“Everybody has got to give better effort, starting with me,” he added.
Lakers Defense Gets Even Worse
Their latest loss to the Rockets once again exposed their most pressing issue: their inability to stop opponents from getting to the paint. After giving up 62 paint points to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the Lakers defense was once again atrocious on Thursday as the Rockets punished them with 68 points in the paint.
The Rockets also had 24 second-chance points, as they out-rebounded the Lakers 48-25, including a staggering 17 offensive boards. The Lakers actually fared well contesting three-point shots, holding Ime Udoka’s team to 33% shooting from three (8-of-24). However, their interior defense once again offered zero resistance, leaving Redick irate.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick fumed after the Christmas Day loss. “And 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.”
“The two words of the day were effort and execution,” Redick continued. “And I feel like when we’ve done both of those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team. When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team. And tonight we were a terrible basketball team. And that started legitimately right away.”
The Lakers (19-10) will try to snap their three-game losing streak against the Kings (7-23) on Sunday. Redick’s team could be without Austin Reaves, who sustained a calf injury during the loss to Houston.
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