JJ Redick rips Lakers with 4-word message after brutal Rockets loss

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers’ current losing streak hit three games following their 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day. For the Lakers, there are plenty of issues to discuss in regards to their poor play as of late. But for head coach JJ Redick, the ultimate reason for the team’s recent stretch can be summed up in four simple words.

“We don’t care enough,” Redick said following the Lakers’ Christmas Day loss to the Rockets. “And that’s the part that bothers me a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary, and 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.”

From the opening tip, the Lakers were a step slower than the Rockets on both ends of the court. They found themselves trailing by double digits early in the first quarter, 18-8, and by the end of the period they were down 37-25.

It was still a double digit deficit at halftime, and the second half didn’t get any better with the Rockets’ lead ballooning to 20 points almost midway through the third quarter. The Lakers couldn’t rebound, they couldn’t get stops and they couldn’t string together enough consistency offensively. To make matters worse, Austin Reaves was ruled out for the second half due to his ongoing calf injury. In the first half, Reaves had been the only consistent offensive threat for the team.

JJ Redick didn’t hold back words when summing up what kind of team the Lakers are right now, while acknowledging that he told the team postgame to expect an uncomfortable practice this weekend.

“The two words of the day were effort and execution. I feel like when we’ve done both those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team,” Redick said. “When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team, and tonight we were a terrible basketball team. That started legitimately right away.”

The Lakers were outrebounded by the Rockets, 48-25. They allowed 24 second chance points compared to their 10, and 16 fastbreak points compared to their 11.

Tuesday’s loss against the Phoenix Suns was the first time this season that the Lakers had lost consecutive games. Redick had vowed that the Lakers would have the right mentality on Christmas, but that was not the case. The Lakers’ next opportunity to get back in the win column is Sunday, Dec. 28 as the Sacramento Kings come to town.

The post JJ Redick rips Lakers with 4-word message after brutal Rockets loss appeared first on ClutchPoints.