After the Lakers’ Christmas Day loss to the Rockets, JJ Redick became enraged. In a nationally televised game on Christmas Day Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Rockets by more than fifteen points for the third time in a row. The Rockets had a great first quarter and never looked back as they won by double digits, so the game was never really competitive.
JJ Redick, the second-year coach, was clearly irritated by the Lakers’ poor performance once more, as evidenced by his expression on the podium during his postgame news conference.
Redick gave a direct assessment of the Lakers’ performance, which saw them give up 119 points against Houston, including 68 points in the paint. Redick said:
“The two words of the day were effort and execution,”. “And I feel like when we’ve done both of those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team and when we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team. Tonight we were a terrible basketball team and that started legitimately right away.”
“It’s a matter of making the choice. And too often we have guys that don’t want to make that choice. And it’s pretty consistent who those guys are. And so, Saturday’s practice, I told the guys, it’s gonna be uncomfortable. The meeting is gonna be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Redick stated that the Lakers’ present lack of enthusiasm is the main cause of the team’s recent problems.
Redick hasn’t been afraid to publicly criticize his team; he even singled out one Lakers player for failing to comprehend a flood, one of Los Angeles’ defensive tactics, without mentioning any names. However, Redick’s message has been heard, especially by Lakers star Luka Dončić, even though it may not be being processed right now.
