Ahead of the Lakers’ opening game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, head coach JJ Redick made no attempt to downplay the challenge in front of them.
After comparing the 2026 Thunder to old NBA dynasties this week, Redick doubled down on the sentiment in his pre-game chat with reporters. In fact, looking back at their previous four regular-season games, Redick did not mince words when asked what the Lakers could take away from the matchups.
“We sucked against this team,” said Redick, via Benjamin Royer.
While it was far from perfect execution, the Lakers managed to take care of business against the Rockets (4-2) thanks to balanced contributions and a commitment from every player to follow Redick’s game plan, which effectively shut down Houston’s offense. Still, they will have to start fresh in this series with a brand new attitude and approach to contain the best team in the West
“We’ve been able to execute. I think just going back to the last three games of the regular season, we kinda had to reset with not a lot of time and build something new on the fly. I think our guys were able to find their way and find their way from an execution standpoint,” Redick added. “For the most part, we did a good job of that on both ends in the Houston series. This is a different team, the best team, and it’s gonna require more. I think every round that you advance in the playoffs, you need to elevate all of the stuff even more. I said to you guys yesterday that’s our attention to detail, that’s our belief, that’s our poise. We gotta be great in all those areas.”
The OKC Thunder are a completely different team from the Rockets, and the Lakers must adjust appropriately. Part of the formula will be disrupting the Thunder’s offense, which means finding ways to force Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into tougher looks. It won’t be easy, but if LA can provide consistent resistance (especially in the paint), it could be a start in making the series competitive.
“A lot of that is that Shai doesn’t miss, so hopefully we can prevent him from shooting mid-range shots. AJ’s so good, too; his ability to go right and create those pump fakes is awesome. When Jalen [Williams] plays, he’s really good and effective in the mid-range as well. But we’ve got to be able to both guard our yard and also do a good job of protecting the paint.”
At the end of the day, the Lakers are underdogs for a reason. As the defending champions, who went 64-18 in the regular season, the Thunder are the team to beat right now, and they don’t have any obvious weaknesses after completing a sweep over the Phoenix Suns in round one. That’s only after they finished top seven in offense and first in defense for the regular season.
For a Lakers team without star guard Luka Doncic, who isn’t due back until later in the series, the odds are more than stacked against them. To beat this team, whom they went 0-4 against in the regular season, in the next four out of seven games, it’ll take a borderline miracle. Still, that’s what some critics were saying in round one, when they were down two of their top scorers.
