Lakers coach JJ Redick scores to lead his team in the fourth quarter of Thursday's loss to the Rockets at Crypto.com Arena.
(Kathleen Mulcahy/Getty Images)
As the Lakers climbed the Western Conference standings, incredible wins with LeBron James and Doncic injured and celebrations Austin Reeves scored 51 points and rise to fame, the atmosphere was high. Players jumped off the bench to cheer each other on. They advocated team-building exercises such as slideshows where they got to know each other and Porsche rides. Everything turned out to be surprisingly easy, especially for a team that had several new players.
“We had it,” Redick said thoughtfully Thursday. “We had it. I always say this about culture, I always say this about a good team as a functioning organism.”
Redick snapped his fingers.
“Things can change so much,” he continued. “We don’t have it now.”
The Lakers' last three losses have all been disastrous. With an average differential of 20.7 points, their overall point differential for the season dropped to minus-15, which ranks 16th in the NBA.
Forward Jake LaRavia said in the locker room that there was a feeling of “disunity” in the team, but could not go into more detail about how things turned out so suddenly. The team's seven-game winning streak in late November seems like a distant memory, although it should serve as a constant reminder that the team shouldn't let its guard down, especially when racking up wins against teams with losing records.
“This [has] it was in trend even when we were winning,” striker Jared Vanderbilt said. “Obviously, winning puts a shadow on a lot of things. But we've been finishing games and losing games pretty much the same way all year: transition defense, rebounding, all that stuff. That's been the trend all year.”
LeBron Jameswho played in his 13th game this season after missing the first 14 with sciatica, had 18 points and five assists but declined to speak to reporters after the game, along with Marcus Smart (six points, two rebounds) and Rui Hachimura (zero points, two assists).
To further aggravate the lingering injury, Reeves left the game after the first half with soreness in his left calf. It was the same calf that knocked him out of the game in three games last week.
