Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick said LeBron James had a remarkable 2025-26 season, and he’ll be counting on his star player to lead the team in their upcoming first round matchup against the Houston Rockets.
James has been up against the odds several times in his career and he faces another tough challenge as he’ll be up against the Rockets without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Redick announced Doncic and Reaves would be out indefinitely, so James will have to try and get Los Angeles past Houston almost by himself.
The Rockets have a massive advantage in the rebounding department, so James called on his teammates to do their jobs and mix it up in the paint.
“My message? I don’t have a message,” James said after practice on Thursday when asked about his message to the Lakers when it comes to keeping Houston off the offensive glass. “The best rebounding team in the last 25 years, what do you mean? You don’t need to have a message. It’s like going against a [Patrick] Mahomes team and they’re the best passing team in the last 30 years. The messag,e you don’t need, ‘Hey, we don’t need to let the receivers get off the line.’ What’s the message? The message is get your ass in there, box out and rebound. We don’t have a message, we all grown men. Do your job.”
Houston’s offense can go for stretches due to their lack of a true healthy point guard on the roster, but they make up for it with extra possessions and offensive put backs. The Lakers will need a collective effort to secure the glass as the responsibility can’t lie solely on James and the bigs.
By James’ response, it sounds like he understands that the key to the series will be to limit the Rockets’ extra chances as much as possible. When a team is as shorthanded as the Lakers are, they can’t afford to give opponents more chances to score and dictate the pace of the game.
Houston enters the matchup as the favorites, but it’s impossible to count out James considering his resume and his play to close the regular season.
LeBron James happy to not be in Play-In Tournament
James gets to enjoy a much-needed break this week as other teams try to qualify for the 2026 NBA Playoffs through the annual Play-In Tournament. James and the Lakers are no strangers to the Play-In Tournament as they’ve won in the past to punch their tickets to the postseason.
However, James acknowledged that he’s happy that he didn’t have to participate this year.
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