The losses are piling up for the Los Angeles Lakers, as they got blown out 119-96 by the Houston Rockets at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday. The Lakers have now lost three in a row, and six of their last 10, and head coach JJ Redick was fuming in his postgame press conference.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said. “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. We had it. We had it. I always say this about culture, I always say this about a good team being a functioning organism. It can change like that. We don’t have it right now.”
The Rockets jumped out to a 37-25 lead at the end of the first quarter and, a brief stretch in the second quarter aside, faced little resistance afterward. It sounds cliched, but this was just yet another instance of a team playing harder than the Lakers.
The Rockets are the best rebounding team in the NBA, and the Lakers did little to bother them on the glass. The visitors won the rebounding battle 48-25, which is just ridiculous.
The Rockets had 17 offensive rebounds alone and turned them into 24 second-chance points. They were an efficient 48-90 (53.3%) from the field, and this was the 14th time this season that the Lakers had allowed a team to shoot 50% or better.
Coming into this game, the Lakers had allowed the Phoenix Suns to go 50-85 (58.8%) from the field during Tuesday’s 132-108 loss. Redick had gone off on his players afterward, damningly stating that they don’t have enough players who choose to play hard by themselves. He brought up his comments from that night after this hammering at the hands of the Rockets.
“It goes back to what I said the other night,” Redick said. “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 going to be uncomfortable. The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Redick had said after the loss to the Suns that his team would come with the right mentality against the Rockets. They did not, though, and he was asked if there was anything he and his coaching staff could do about this “lack of care” factor.
“No, I think guys will say they want to win,” Redick said. “The care factor to me is like, do I care enough to actually do what I’m supposed to do and just do it consistently. And that’s really what the championship habits are, and that’s what we don’t have right now.”
Redick had demanded before the season that the Lakers need to be in championship shape, have championship communication, and have championship habits. He clearly doesn’t like what he has seen from a habits standpoint lately.
Superstar guard Luka Doncic stated everyone has to give better effort, starting from himself. Actions speak a lot louder than words, though.
The Lakers have now dropped to 19-10 and will take on the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday at 9:30 PM ET. The alarm bells would truly start ringing if they lose to the lowly Kings, if they haven’t already. Notably, the Lakers might be without Austin Reaves for that one, as he exited the clash with the Rockets at halftime due to left calf soreness.
