The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a better start to the 2025-26 season than just about anybody predicted. Head coach JJ Redick has the Lakers at 15-4 through 19 games, good enough for a 65-win pace and second in the Western Conference as of Monday, Dec. 1.
However, there are certainly things to point to that signal a potential regression to the mean. L.A. does have the No. 5 offense in the league, but their defense ranks 17th. Their net rating of 4.1 puts them at 12th in the league, right around the Boston Celtics (11-9) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (12-9). Their turnover rate ranks 23rd, and their assist-to-turnover ratio is 21st.
Despite coming off a blowout win over the shorthanded New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, Redick recognizes all these factors and knows there are things to be happy about and things to improve on.
“We challenged the guys before the game,” Redick said. “We got out to a 7-2 start. We’ve been 7-2 in our last nine games. The last time we were in a 7-2 stretch, we played Atlanta. The day, right before the game, a bunch of guys are out. So, it’s similar, Zion [Williamson] is out, Trey [Murphy III] is out and Herb [Jones] is out. [Jordan] Poole’s been out. So, we wanted to get off to a good start. We wanted to play with the right intent; I thought we did that.
“Then the game got a little wonky with their junk defenses and the firing and all that stuff. Truthfully, I think sometimes you get a lead like that and I hate saying this, but teams can get a little bored. That’s what we’re trying to get away from; is just continuing to be a process team and didn’t think we were great with that tonight. I didn’t think our defense was good for the last three quarters. It’s nice to sit here and be 15-4 and be like, ‘Oh, the results are great.’ And we should be proud of being 15-4 after 19 games. It’s a great start. There’s a lot of slices of pizza left in the box that we can still get after. There’s a lot of room for improvement for our team, which to me is a positive.”
The Lakers will have a chance to prove themselves with some tougher competition coming up. Their next five games are all against teams currently over .500 — the Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and San Antonio Spurs — and Redick is excited for that challenge.
“Absolutely. The entire season is a challenge and throughout the season, there’s stretches that are more challenging than others,” Redick said. “I don’t think anybody on our team necessarily [looks], and this is not a knock on New Orleans by the way, but the reality is the Clippers, the Mavs and the Lakers and the history of all that stuff and who those teams have been over the last several seasons. I don’t think the Clippers and Mavs, I don’t think our guys are looking at their records and saying, ‘Oh, this is a bad team.’ New Orleans has had a ton of injuries and a coaching change, so that’s a different situation.
“We’ve got an incredible challenge tomorrow with Phoenix. Those guys have played great basketball and they’re coming off a couple losses to two of the best teams in the NBA. They play hard. They have an identity. That’s gonna be a huge challenge on the second night of the back-to-back. Then, in terms of an East Coast trip, I know there’s a couple teams that have stuff like this in terms of Eastern Conference going West and West going east, I’ve been a part of the NBA [for] 19 years, I don’t ever remember a California-based team going to the far east of the Eastern Conference for three games to play three in four nights. That’s an incredible challenge. Then we come back, of course, and we’ve got another challenge. So, it’s gonna be a tough stretch and we’re gonna have to manage a lot of different stuff coming up.”
Redick then analyzed if teams have an easier time staying engaged and hearing constructive critiques when they are winning versus when they are losing.
“We’ve tried to make a concentrated effort to try to get better even when we’re winning, and that’s probably a better question for the players because I know as a coach, and Luka and I were joking in the last minute, he was talking after I took him out of the game with three minutes to go, and one of the things I said to him was, ‘You have no idea the level of paranoia that I live with as a coach, and it’s really different than when I played.’
“So I like our team. The guys have bought in, and they get along, and they root for each other, and it’s not fake. We watch it on film. We highlight it on film. There’s a lot of things that I really like about our basketball team. It’s okay 19 games in to say, ‘Hey, we’re not where we want to be.’ That’s okay. That doesn’t take away from anything we’ve done or anything that any individuals have done so far this season. So we have to just continue. Again, tomorrow something’s going to happen. We’ve got to get better from it. Our defense has to get better. I thought we had some good stretches. I didn’t like a lot of tonight on that end.”
Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism with the Lakers right now is that Redick and the roster do not appear to have a false sense of where the team is at. They are happy to be 15-4, but they know that they have room to improve, and that they have not yet played their best basketball. That mindset alone should keep them from getting complacent, even if the wins continue to stack up.
Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves make history in last three Lakers games
With Luka Doncic scoring 34 points on Sunday and Austin Reaves scoring 33, the Lakers’ backcourt duo has become just the fourth in the last 50 years to each score 30 points in three consecutive games.
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