Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick led his team to a 53-29 record in the 2025-26 season and will now need to begin preparations to face off against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs.
The Lakers entered their final game of the regular season needing a win and a Denver Nuggets loss to move up to the third seed, but the latter beat the San Antonio Spurs to keep the former in the four spot. Los Angeles would have seen the Minnesota Timberwolves had they claimed the third seed, but arguably get a better matchup in Houston.
After the win against the Jazz, Redick emphasized that the Rockets are a formidable foe that he and his team must be ready to face in the postseason.
“Yeah, again, we have tried for the last six weeks to build towards the playoffs,” he said. “Both in our mentality with our habits, all that stuff. We knew the reality whether we got the three, four, five, six [seed], whatever it was, there’s no easy matchup. All those teams slotted there are tough teams. Whether it was gonna end up being Denver [Nuggets], Minnesota [Timberwolves] or Houston [Rockets].
“Houston’s obviously a really good basketball team and we’re gonna prepare and we’re gonna fight and we’re gonna go try to win the series. Going into today we told the team like it was; it’s not about the opponent, it’s about us. And now it is about the opponent. We’re gonna do everything we can to get our guys in a great frame of mind, great physical shape over the next four or five days and be ready to play.”
The Lakers won the regular season series against the Rockets, winning two out of three of their meetings. However, Luka Doncic was the catalyst in both those wins so it remains to be see how Los Angeles will attack Houston without its No. 1 option.
Austin Reaves’ absence will also loom large in the series as he’s one of the few options outside of Doncic who can break down a defense from the perimeter and get into the paint to wreak havoc. LeBron James has adjusted well to being the Lakers’ No. 1 option again, but asking him to constantly create versus a physical Rockets defense is a lot to ask.
Redick has been able to lean on Marcus Smart and even Luke Kennard to alleviate the playmaking burden on James, but there will still be situations where L.A. will need more help given how much Houston likes to hound ball-handlers.
However, the Rockets’ fatal weakness is their inability to generate consistent offense of their own without Kevin Durant. The Lakers were able to take advantage of this in their two wins, so this will be worth watching out for when the series kicks off.
JJ Redick proud of Lakers’ season
Redick and the rest of his staff were forced to adjust on the fly without Doncic and Reaves on the floor. While it wasn’t always pretty, the Lakers found a way to still clinch home-court advantage and Redick praised his players for being able to overcome adversity.
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