JJ Redick Tore Into Lakers After Christmas Day Clunker vs. Rockets

Redick promised an “uncomfortable” practice after the Lakers' 23-point loss to the Rockets.

Redick's Lakers have lost three straight games. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

For the third straight game, the Los Angeles Lakers were defeated by 15-plus points, this time to the Rockets in a nationally-televised game on Christmas Day Thursday. The contest was never particularly close, as the Rockets raced out of the gate with a dominant first quarter, then never looked back en route to the double-digit victory. And once again, the Lakers' lackluster performance left coach JJ Redick irate, as the second-year coach was visibly frustrated when he took to the podium for his postgame press conference.

Redick's summation of the performance, which saw the Lakers concede 119 points to Houston, including 68 points in the paint, was blunt.

“The two words of the day were effort and execution,” Redick said. “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.”

In Redick's eyes, the Lakers currently look like an apathetic team, something he pointed to as the biggest reason for the club's recent struggles.

JJ Redick went scorched earth on the Lakers postgame. pic.twitter.com/ZLuOKyqMBQ

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) December 26, 2025

“Because we don't care enough right now,” Redick said. “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.”

Redick promises 'uncomfortable practice' for some Lakers players

As Redick told reporters, he sees repeat offenders on the Lakers, whom he vowed will have a rude awakening in the form of Saturday's “uncomfortable practice.”

“Again, 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 gonna be uncomfortable. The meeting is gonna be uncomfortable. I'm not doing another 53 games like this.”

Redick hasn't been hesitant to call out his team publicly, as he even—without naming any names—singled out one Lakers player for not understanding one of Los Angeles's defensive strategies, called a flood. But while Redick's message may not be processing at the moment, it's certainly been heard, most notably by Lakers star Luka Dončić.

“I don't know what has to change, but definitely something needs to change," Dončić said. "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.”

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