Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick deserves a lot of credit for the team’s recent turnaround as he has gotten his group to play much harder on both ends of the floor.
With the 2025-26 season winding down, the Lakers are in a sprint toward the finish line and so far, they’ve answered the call with six consecutive wins. Los Angeles’ recent 100-92 victory against the Houston Rockets was hard-fought as they had to overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half.
Normally, the Lakers are able to shoot themselves back into games, but it was their defense that saved the day. Redick highlighted the team’s defensive adjustments at halftime and praised the group’s execution on Kevin Durant, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“They’re a really good basketball team and they make you either play hard and match their physicality and how they muck the game up, or you can lie down. We didn’t lie down tonight. Had a deficit there in the third quarter, our guys just kept playing. I thought defensively in the second half with some of the adjustments we made at halftime, we just executed really, really well, particularly with just trying to get the ball out of Durant’s hands. We forced nine turnovers in the fourth quarter doing that. Just a terrific defensive second half for us. When they’re playing that five-man lineup minus Sheppard and no big, they’ve got five really good defenders out there, it’s really hard to generate good offense. I thought we made the right play consistently, didn’t shoot it well. Had a stretch there where we had some wide-open 3s with some bad misses. It carried over from this morning, from pregame, we gotta have a playoff mentality this time of year and I thought our guys did that and we executed really well.”
Los Angeles was able to meet Houston’s physicality and effort on the defensive end, scrapping for loose balls and rebounds despite the heavy toll. They also made sure to corral Durant, who has been Houston’s only consistent source of offense this season. He only had two points in the second half on 1-of-5 shooting with six turnovers.
Now riding a six-game winning streak, the Lakers have a chance to really take hold of the third seed when they play the Rockets again on Wednesday.
JJ Redick commends LeBron James’ sacrifice to help Lakers
With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves handling the lion’s share of possessions, LeBron James has adapted and been a supercharged third option for Los Angeles. JJ Redick commended James for his sacrifices as they’ve allowed the Lakers to win more games as of late.
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