The Los Angeles Lakers face a 3-0 series deficit in the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, hoping for a good result in Game 4 on Monday against the No. 1 seed OKC Thunder. Despite the alleged referee controversies in this series, the Thunder have thoroughly outplayed the Lakers on the court and will likely advance to the next round unless the Lakers complete an unprecedented comeback.
With the sun setting on the 2025-26 Lakers season, head coach JJ Redick was asked by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin at a post-practice media scrum about how he feels towards his roster, and if his perception of them has been altered with the 3-0 series deficit they face. The second-year head coach shared a thoughtful and mature answer.
“I think, again, coaching is about two things: it’s about maximizing the group, and then it’s, do people enjoy coming to work? And when you set out on any season, that’s your goal.”
“I don’t know about the second one because, frankly, every guy is going to go through adversity during the season, whether it’s playing time or feeling like they’re not getting plays called, whatever it may be. I think that second question probably changes by the day.”
“The first question: can you maximize the group? I think we’ve done that this year. I’m not saying that as a credit to the staff. It’s a credit to everybody in the building. And we’ve put ourselves in position in three of these games that we were in the mix in the second half, and there’s a reason they’re the world champions, there’s a reason they’re the deepest team in basketball. And that’s why they win. So, I wish we weren’t in this hole. We’re going to try to be better, and we’re going to try to win the game tomorrow and extend the series.”
The Lakers simply don’t have the roster needed to keep pace with the Thunder. The franchise has found ways to limit the production of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s averaged 21.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 5.7 assists over this series, but they don’t have enough answers on either end to challenge for a win against this squad.
LeBron James has averaged 23.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 6.7 assists as the 41-year-old leader of the franchise against OKC, while Austin Reaves is averaging 18.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 7.0 assists despite his recent return from injury. Unfortunately, the Lakers didn’t have the services of Luka Doncic at their disposal, as it looks unlikely that the 27-year-old guard will appear in the 2026 Playoffs after failing to return from the hamstring injury he suffered at the start of April.
Coach Redick maximized the pieces on his roster in a way we haven’t seen other Lakers coaches do over the LeBron era. He’s shown enough as a coach for the front office to believe in his vision and spend the assets necessary to help build the kind of team Redick can take to the promised land.
If LeBron and Reaves return to the franchise for next season with the right pieces around them and Doncic, coach Redick will feel confident in being able to mount an actual title challenge.
