That would be a much welcome decision. Keon Ellis and Malick Monk are two of my favorite players.

Is that Jake from State Farm as the source? I’d love that but hard to see us getting both for a single pick and swaps.

Jamie, you’re absolutely right that Austin’s injury is a gut punch. Losing a guy who had basically become the connective tissue of the offense isn’t something you just “patch up” with a rotation tweak. His blend of scoring, playmaking, and composure was the stabilizer for so many of our lineups. There’s no one-for-one replacement.

But I actually think this stretch is less about replacing Austin and more about forcing the Lakers to rediscover an identity they’ve drifted away from. The last three games exposed how dependent the team had become on his versatility. Now they have to simplify, tighten the rotation, and lean into the strengths they do have.

Your lineup ideas make sense, especially the push to break up the LBJ/Ayton/Rui minutes. That trio has been a black hole on both ends. Starting Smart and Vando gives the team a defensive backbone again—something they desperately need if the offense is going to be this limited. And honestly, if LaRavia is ever going to pop, this is the moment. Sink or swim.

As for LeBron-at-center lineups, I think that’s unavoidable. It’s not ideal at his age, but it’s the only way to unlock the kind of pace, spacing, and decision-making this roster needs to survive without Austin. Put him at the top of the key, surround him with cutters and shooters, and let him orchestrate. It’s not sustainable for 40 minutes a night, but it can win stretches.

The bigger point, though, is this: the Lakers don’t need someone to be Austin. They need two or three guys to give them pieces of what he brought. A little more creation from Nick Smith Jr. A little more defensive chaos from Vando. A little more scoring aggression from Rui. A little more steadiness from Smart. It’s a committee job.

This is absolutely a challenge for the coaching staff—but it’s also an opportunity. Teams either crumble when their safety valve goes down, or they get sharper, tougher, and more intentional. If the Lakers can survive this stretch, they’ll come out of it with a stronger identity and a more battle-tested rotation.

And when Austin comes back? That’s when things get interesting again.

The Lakers have a new owner and no culture worth preserving. They have limitless resources and a very desirable job.You can’t tell me that of anyone who’d want to run the Lakers in 2026, Rob Pelinka is the most desirable option when no other team would reach that conclusion. https://t.co/HCYNWXayk4— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) December 26, 2025

The Lakers are sort of like the Yankees. They both have the history, market and resources to have the absolute best in every non-player position, so it's weird to me that there are fans who would ever want to settle for "eh he's fine, does some things well and somethings badly." https://t.co/fvc1fzXU9Q— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) December 26, 2025

Forget about his relationship with Kobe. Forget about the 2020 champion Rich Paul built anyway. Forget about the Luka trade because I’m almost positive Rob doesn’t have any more stupid friends to steal from.Just ask yourself if he’s truly the best possible GM for the Lakers. https://t.co/6lNSCzY32l— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) December 26, 2025

I think the answer is no. The Lakers have had the same problems for half a decade. They keep trying to solve them with the same outdated solutions. They need to completely rethink their approach to roster-building. The Dodgers did that and look where it got them. https://t.co/NAl8ZAJ3Lv— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) December 26, 2025

This isn’t “they need a 3-and-D” or “they need a rim protector.”No. They need a wholly different sort of team to support their two best players. They have three FRPs and $55 million in cap space to do that this summer. Is Rob Pelinka really the man you trust to maximize that? https://t.co/teqR8cl3HV— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) December 26, 2025

I mean..I stopped believing in Rob Pelinka a long time ago. I don’t go around calling him Master Class for nothing. It’s out of sarcasm. Dude has always been out of his depth. He absolutely lucked into the Luka trade, botched most of his other chances prior to that, and will probably fire another coach that isn’t the real issue, again. At least we got Nate or Scotty waiting in the wings to grab the reigns.

Rob has had Luka for 10 months and hasn’t made a single trade to improve this roster lmaoLiterally got gifted Luka and basically got gifted our best center and best defender from buyouts too Mark Walter gotta send him and Jeanie to the unemployment line— 🅿️erSources CEO | Adou Thiero FC (@pelinkaburner) December 26, 2025

Guess we get a chance to see what the Lakers starting lineup would be without Austin Reaves for the next 4 weeks. Unfortunately, AR won't be able to help the bench while he's out. Tough break that probably should be partially blamed on Rob Pelinka's failure to surround his stars… https://t.co/PcK9hb1IZ7— LakerTom (@LakerTom) December 27, 2025

Bummer that it happened in the midst of a break out season. Need him back solid for the playoffs.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Lakers, we’ve known for some time, are prone to nights like this. The nights that skew their point differentials, the nights when they look nowhere close to a team that can contend, the nights when their worst habits shine brightest and their biggest strengths retreat to the background.

It’s why they’ve won 19 total games with just a plus-eight point differential.

As the Lakers pulled their healthy regulars early in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, everything the Lakers aren’t on the defensive end — aggressive at the point of attack, consistently communicating, constantly covering for one another — had fully eclipsed anything good happening on the other side of the floor.

They had no chance of winning this game, not with this energy, not with this focus, not with this mindset. It didn’t matter that Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton, who had missed time over the last week, were back. It might not have mattered if Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura or Gabe Vincent were there.

The Lakers’ 132-108 loss had nothing to do with talent and everything to do with DNA, one team firmly established as a group that plays with physicality and toughness always and another that has to focus its attention and effort on those things.

Last year, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jordan Goodwin played with enough infectious energy to give the Lakers more than enough attitude on a nightly basis. Asked by The Athletic if they have those kinds of players this year, coach JJ Redick issued the obvious response.

“No,” he said.

Redick said the team’s success hinges on a series of choices. While injuries and revolving lineups have slowed continuity on the defensive end, the real challenges stem from mentality. And while players can get healthier, they don’t usually get tougher or more energetic.

“We practice this stuff enough,” Redick said. “We review this stuff enough. We show film on this stuff enough that to me … it comes down to just making the choice. It’s making the choice.

“There are shortcuts you can take, or you can do the hard thing and you can make the second effort. Or you can sprint back or you can’t. It’s just a choice. And there’s a million choices in a game, and you’re very likely not gonna make every choice correctly. But can you make the vast majority of ’em correctly? It gives you a chance to win.”

That the Lakers have to choose to play with the right kind of energy is, in itself, an indictment. For other teams — including some they’re chasing in the Western Conference like Oklahoma City and the surging San Antonio Spurs — that energy is the default.

“The theme with our team, again, is like these young teams that move, we just can’t move,” Redick said. “So it’s like we’re stuck in mud.”

The NBA and NFL are dreaming of a green Christmas, and that’s not cool. Never mind the TV overload. Think of all the people working them.

Publicly, Lakers players are saying that the team can and will find the right gear defensively so they can work together to get stops. Privately, sources inside the locker room acknowledged that the current roster will have to grind its way through the regular season instead of setting its cruise control at 85 and ignoring the brakes.

“We had a guy the other day who hasn’t played a lot, who didn’t know what a flood was in the middle of a game,” Redick said, referencing a common term for overloading the defense to the strong side of the court. “We clearly have some room to grow in that area.”

Internally, there’s some skepticism that the answers to this problem exist inside the locker room. Last year, Redick and the Lakers’ coaching staff called their hardest-playing role players “banshees.” This year, he’s barely uttered the phrase.

This team, the Lakers believe, has a higher ceiling than last year’s. There’s clearly more talent on the roster. But the ways in which it feels incomplete are so clear on nights like Tuesday, especially when a former Laker, Goodwin, is sparking his new team in ways the Lakers so badly need.

Last year, president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka traded for Finney-Smith. He signed Goodwin to a two-way deal. And the team’s defense improved — even as it lost its anchor Anthony Davis in the Dončić deal.

No one has gone as far as to say the Lakers need to make those same kinds of moves this year. But Redick did say that, for the Lakers to be better more regularly on defense, they’re going to have to approach the game differently.

And it might be easier to change the roster than it is to change a player’s mentality.

“That’s why I said it’s the hard choice. And it’s not the easy choice,” Redick said. “It’s human nature. We all do it. We do it on a daily basis. We make easy choices cause it’s comfortable. Comfortable doesn’t win.”

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Merry Christmas! Hard to beat a holiday filled with NBA basketball, especially with the Lakers on the main stage hosting the Rockets.

There is more good news: Luka Dončić is expected to play after missing the last game with a lower leg contusion, as is Rui Hachimura, so both the Lakers and the Rockets should have their main players available.

This should be a fun matchup between two teams sitting neck and neck in the standings, but with almost opposite advanced profiles. Houston has been one of the league’s best teams by point differential all season. At +8.7, the Rockets rank second in the NBA, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder. And yet, they’ve also been the league’s most high-profile underachievers late in games. Houston is just 6–8 in clutch situations, with four of those losses coming in overtime. Three overtime losses have come in their last five games, and eight of their ten total losses this season have been decided in the clutch. So far, the clutch process has been too much Alperen Sengun, and too little Kevin Durant, who was brought in to provide shotmaking when things get tight. The result is a league-worst -2.9 win differential—nearly three fewer wins than expected based on how dominant their point margins have been. The Lakers, on the other end, have made their money in the clutch, where they are a league-best 10–0 and own the NBA’s top +4.9 win differential.

So, you could say this is a battle between the league’s biggest underachievers and overachievers.

That shouldn’t matter too much tonight, as both teams have a lot to prove and redeem themselves. Both have been struggling lately, especially on defense, with both coaches questioning their teams’ effort. Over the last three weeks, the Lakers are 3–3, with their defensive struggles well documented. They rank 27th defensively over that stretch. The Rockets’ defensive collapse is much more surprising. They are 2–5 over the same stretch and rank even lower, 28th on defense, after Ime Udoka’s squad was the league’s second-best defensive team before that.

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Lakers (19-9) vs Rockets (17-10) game facts
Rest: LAL on 1 day of rest; HOU on 1 day of rest

Ranking: LAL 16th in Point Diff (+0.4), HOU 2nd in Point Diff (+8.7)

LAL vs HOU 2024-25 record: 2-1

LAL injuries: Luka Dončić (questionable), Jaxson Hayes (questionable), Gabe Vincent (OUT), Rui Hachimura (probable)

HOU injuries: Fred VanVleet (OUT), Alperen Sengun (questionable), Dorian Finney-Smith (questionable), Jae’Sean Tate (questionable)

LAL projected starting five: Luka Dončić (G), Austin Reaves (G), Rui Hachimura (F), LeBron James (F), Deandre Ayton (C)

LAL key reserves: Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt, Maxi Kleber, Dalton Knecht, Nick Smith Jr., Adou Thiero

HOU projected starting five: Amen Thompson (G), Josh Okogie (G), Kevin Durant (F), Jabari Smith Jr. (F), Alperen Sengun (C)

HOU key reserves: Reed Sheppard, Steven Adams, Tari Eason, Aaron Holiday, Clint Capela

Key storyline: How will the Lakers handle another long and very physical team?

The book has been out on the Lakers this season: stifle them with athleticism, length, and pressure, and they can very possibly turn the ball over, get run over in transition, and eventually roll over.

Despite their and Udoka’s reputation, the Rockets haven’t been a heavy on-ball pressure team. They rank just 21st in opponent turnover rate and ninth in opponent free-throw rate, a profile more in line with a conservative defense. That could change with Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith potentially returning to the rotation.

But where the Rockets’ aggressiveness really comes into play is on the glass. They are the NBA’s best offensive rebounding team, collecting nearly 40% of their misses in the half-court. Their starting lineup is massive, with three players at 6’11”, and only Josh Okogie standing shorter than 6’7”. They also often play two-big lineups, with Steven Adams and Sengun overwhelming opponents on the offensive boards.

Rebounding has been one of the rare bright spots of the Lakers’ defense, but the Rockets will present a challenge they haven’t seen before. Houston is typically a slow-paced team (third slowest pace) that doesn’t run much (24th in transition frequency), but this feels like a matchup where Udoka could change his approach. Expect his athletes—Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Eason, and others—to push the pace at every opportunity, trying to expose the Lakers’ biggest weakness: lack of speed.

The test will be very difficult, but also an opportunity for the Lakers to change the narrative and prove they can hang with young, physical teams on a big national stage—after failing to do so in their last attempt, an NBA Cup quarterfinal loss against the San Antonio Spurs.

This is where the Lakers’ hopes lie, and where the key tactical battle for tonight will unfold.

It feels like for the Lakers to have a chance, their offense, especially their two primary pick-and-roll operators, Luka and Reaves, will need not only efficient scoring nights, but also to force Udoka into more aggressive hedging or blitzing coverages, then punish those looks by making plays in 4-on-3 situations. After a stretch in the middle of the season when teams tried to stop Dončić by getting the ball out of his hands with more aggressive tactics, we’ve seen opponents reverse course. That shift followed the Suns showing a template built around a big playing in drop coverage, combined with aggressive shrink and stunts from the sides to reduce the pocket space Dončić likes to operate in with his snake and hostage dribbles.

The Rockets have strong on-ball defenders suited for this approach in Amen Thompson, Josh Okogie, and Tari Eason. The challenge comes on the back line, where their slower-footed bigs are not the same rim and lob deterrent that Mark Williams was. So far this season, Udoka has been among the more aggressive coaches when it comes to blitz frequency against top ball-handlers. The Rockets have shown those looks against Jamal Murray, Cade Cunningham, James Harden, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. We’ll see whether he goes to that coverage from the start against Dončić, or instead tests his calf and streaky shot early before reverting to showing two on the ball.

Regardless of the coverage, this is a night when the Lakers’ half-court offense will have to be efficient, and Dončić, Reaves, and James can’t afford to turn the ball over at a high rate. Because of the Rockets’ size and offensive rebounding, the Lakers will likely face a possession deficit, and they can’t afford to make it worse by giving the ball away.

The most likely, and most feasible, Lakers path to success is highly efficient scoring with Luka and the rest being the aggressors, dictating the terms on offense and forcing Udoka, Sengun, and the rest into a reactionary rather than proactive approach.

Rockets on offense | Lakers on defense

Here is where things get tricky for LA. Despite their recent struggles, the Rockets have been scoring at a high rate and rank as the third-best offense in the NBA.

The hope for a Lakers defensive resurrection lies in the fact that Houston is not the fast, downhill attacking team that has given them the most problems. Apart from Thompson, the other two key threats, Durant and Sengun, are more methodical, back-you-down or shoot-over-you types of players. That’s the profile the slower Lakers tend to contain better, rather than explosive drive-by attackers.

The Rockets’ shot profile also suits the Lakers better. They rank second in the NBA in mid-range frequency and last in three-point frequency, a much more manageable profile than aggressive rim-attacking or three-point-heavy teams. There is one caveat. The Lakers tend to shrink and show help off corner shooters, or are simply late on close-outs there, and the Rockets are top three in corner three accuracy at 43.5 percent, while also ranking second overall in three-point percentage.

Again, the offensive glass is where the Rockets are elite, especially when Steven Adams is on the floor. To match the Rockets’ size and bulk, the Lakers will need to repeat what they did on March 31 last season, when they collectively fought and gang-rebounded with smaller lineups against Sengun and Adams. That was one of their better hustle wins of the season, and they’ll again try to expose the Rockets’ slow foot speed on the other end.

Are the Lakers ready for zone and switching?

Udoka potentially going all in on size and trying to crush opponents on the glass is another interesting layer of this matchup. The Rockets have already logged 521 possessions with both Sengun and Adams on the floor (see orange blocks in the chart below), and have also paired Sengun with Clint Capela at times.

Source: pbpstats

With those lineups, Udoka often reverts to zone defense, and the Rockets currently rank second in zone defense frequency. The Lakers haven’t faced much zone this season, so Redick and his team will have to be ready and sharp against it tonight.

Personally, I would be more worried if the Rockets go small, with Durant, Smith Jr., Eason, and Thompson in long, switch-everything lineups, than with them having several targets for Dončić, Reaves, and James on the floor. The Lakers have excelled this season against hedge and aggressive schemes, but they tend to get too stagnant, too ISO-heavy, and too reliant on hero shots against switching defenses.

The Rockets’ ability to change styles, and how the Lakers deal with it, adds another interesting layer to this already intriguing matchup.

Final thoughts

After the last disappointing blowout loss against the Suns, I wrote about system breakdowns and the Lakers’ need for deep introspection. Their flaws feel so evident and so hard to overcome that a major reshuffle seems necessary to address them.

Will tonight’s game prove me wrong and bring hope? Or will it deepen those concerns and reinforce the belief in that diagnosis?

Let’s see how it plays out on the biggest NBA regular-season stage.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Surprise, surprise…The Los Angeles Lakers are shopping for an upgrade. While other contenders are standing pat, confident in what they already have, the Lakers are actively searching for help despite sitting at 19–8 and fourth in the Western Conference.

Right now, the Lakers are winning, and they have made some good pick ups in the offseason. Deandre Ayton has been stellar. Even Marcus Smart has been better than expected. But even with that being said, they know that the pieces that make up their current roster just are not enough.

Marc Stein captured that contrast clearly on The Stein Line, writing, “Really only the Lakers loom as a clear-cut playoff team like Minnesota that is known to be shopping for a particular need.”

In a conference loaded with top talent, the Lakers are the rare playoff team openly acknowledging a weakness and trying to address it midseason, which is obviously a good thing.

Why the Lakers are operating differently than other West teams

That weakness is no secret. The Lakers lack a true 3-and-D wing. They desperately need a perimeter defender who can stay on the floor offensively while taking on elite scorers.

Right now, they do not have a player who reliably checks both boxes. And the truth is, against top teams in the West, that gap shows up quickly, especially when the matchup turns physical. If you know anything about playoff basketball, every matchup gets physical.

The Lakers are way more desperate to make a move in the West than the other top dogs. The contrast with Oklahoma City could not be sharper.

The defending champions are off to an absolutely blistering 26–3 start, and their roster looks complete. There is no incentive for the Thunder to disrupt chemistry that is already producing dominant results. Stability is a luxury they have earned.

Other West teams feel similarly comfortable. As Stein noted, “Denver, meanwhile, is said to be pleased with the offensive boost provided by newly acquired Jonas Valančiūnas while remaining bullish on Cam Johnson… The Rockets are starting to regularly see the sort of production they hoped for from Reed Sheppard… San Antonio, too, has every reason to watch its young core continue to blossom rather than chase an older star.”

Each team has a reason to wait. The Lakers do not because their margin is thinner. Stein also cautioned that solutions may be limited, writing that “it’s equally unclear… if a player who can help address the Lakers’ need for a 3-and-D wing… becomes available between now and the Feb. 5 trade buzzer.”

The market may not cooperate, and the Lakers’ asset pool certainly will not make things easy. The Lakers have zero second-round draft picks between 2026 and 2031. Their first round draft capital is not a pretty sight either.

Still, effort matters. The Lakers are going to need to pick up the phone and hope for a taker, especially with the weaker, rebuilding teams in the league.

An example of a team they could call is the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans’ instability makes them an obvious target, and the Lakers should explore every possible opening.