‘We don’t have it right now.’ Takeaways from the Lakers’ third straight loss

JJ Redick repeats the same key words after every loss: effort and execution. The Lakers found none of either at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday in a 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets that played out with a plot as familiar as a Hallmark holiday movie.

Getting outhustled by a team that simply played harder and with more energy, the Lakers (19-10) dropped their third consecutive game. It’s their longest losing streak of the season and left the team questioning its identity.

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“I don’t know what has to change,” said guard Luka Doncic, who led the Lakers with 25 points and seven assists, but had six turnovers. “But definitely something needs to change.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Vibes are bad

When the Lakers were climbing up the Western Conference standings, improbably winning games with LeBron James and Luka Doncic injured and celebrating Austin Reaves’ 51-point performance and ascent into stardom, the vibes were high. Players jumped off the bench to cheer for each other. They championed team bonding exercises such as slideshow presentations that introduced themselves to each other and a field trip to a Porsche driving experience. It all felt surprisingly easy, especially for a team that had several new additions.

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“We had it,” Redick said wistfully Thursday. “We had it. I always say this about culture, I always say this about a good team being a functioning organism.”

Redick snapped his fingers.

“It can change like that,” he continued. “We don’t have it right now.”

Read more: Lakers lose Austin Reaves, then get called out by JJ Redick after loss to Rockets

All three of the Lakers’ most recent losses have been blowouts. With an average margin of defeat of 20.7 points, their total point differential has dropped to minus-15 on the season, which ranks 16th in the NBA.

Forward Jake LaRavia said in the locker room that there felt like a “disconnect” on the team, but couldn’t verbalize more about how things had turned so suddenly. The team’s seven-game winning streak at the end of November feels like a distant memory, although it should serve as a constant reminder of how a team shouldn’t let its guard down, especially when it was just collecting wins off teams with losing records.

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“This [has] kind of been the trending thing even when we were winning,” forward Jarred Vanderbilt said. “Obviously wins kinda shadow a lot of stuff. But it’s been the same pretty much all year of how we finished games, lose games: transition defense, rebounding and stuff like that. It’s been a trend all year.”

LeBron James, who played in his 13th game this season after missing the first 14 games because of sciatica, had 18 points and five assists and declined to speak with reporters after the game, along with Marcus Smart (six points, two rebounds) and Rui Hachimura (zero points, two assists).

To further exasperate the lingering injury bug, Reaves left the game after the first half because of left calf soreness. It was the same calf that sidelined him for three games last week.

Jarred Vanderbilt shooting for larger role

Vanderbilt was one of the few bright spots for the Lakers, finishing with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal. His energy off the bench in the second quarter, especially when playing with Smart, who fought through a right shoulder injury, helped the Lakers force four turnovers in a five-minute stretch. Vanderbilt’s three-pointer with 4:16 remaining in the second that trimmed the lead to four was one of the few moments that made the mostly apathetic holiday crowd roar.

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Vanderbilt’s offensive deficiencies were the primary reason he fell out of the rotation for 10 games, but since returning to the lineup regularly against Phoenix on Dec. 14, Vanderbilt has made seven of 13 three-pointers in five games, including three for four on Thursday. It was his first game as a Laker with three made threes.

Outside of LaRavia, who stayed on the court after both teams had otherwise emptied the bench, Vanderbilt was the only Laker who had a positive plus-minus. The Lakers outscored the Rockets by five in Vanderbilt’s 26 minutes and 23 seconds on the floor.

“I feel like I try to come in the game and bring that energy and hoping guys could feed off it,” Vanderbilt said. “But we need to play [like] that for 48 minutes. … We just got to dig deep and want to do it.”

Lakers get buried on the boards

The Rockets (18-10) are not just the NBA’s best rebounding team, but they could be the best in a generation. The team’s 55.6% rebounding rate is the best in the NBA on record since at least the 1996-97 season.

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Houston’s dominance on the boards was at the top of Redick’s mind before the game when he estimated the Rockets were the best rebounding team since the 1994-95 Mavericks. He emphasized the importance of gang rebounding against a team known for its physically imposing double-big lineup and athletic wings.

Read more: Amid injury ‘chaos’ for Lakers, LeBron James is starting to look like his old self

Then the Rockets grabbed two offensive rebounds in their first two possessions. The Rockets outrebounded the Lakers 48-25, the Lakers’ largest rebounding deficit since Nov. 8, 2023, which was also against Houston. Houston had 17 offensive rebounds, only one fewer than the Lakers’ defensive rebounding total, and with 12 rebounds, center Alpren Sengun matched the Lakers’ entire starting lineup on the boards.

“Everybody gotta give better effort,” Doncic said, “starting with me.”

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Doncic had five rebounds, tied with Vanderbilt for the team lead. Center Deandre Ayton had just two boards and 10 points in 36 minutes and 17 seconds. It was the 7-footer’s lowet rebounding total of the season.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.