Despite having LeBron James back on the floor, the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t keep up with the Phoenix Suns at home. Dillon Brooks broke out with 33 points, and the visitors left Crypto.com Arena with a 125-108 win.
The Suns led by as many as 25 points, and Luka Doncic didn’t even play in the fourth quarter as the game was already out of reach.
The visitors shot 56% from the floor and 44% from beyond the arc. And despite only going to the line eight times, they dominated by forcing 22 turnovers, scoring 32 points off them.
That’s why, following the game, Lakers coach J.J. Redick didn’t hold back on his players for their lack of effort in transition:
“If you don’t play hard against that team, you’re going to get exposed. Multiple times in the first half, we have a numbers advantage in transition on the defensive end, and guys just run by us. We talked about matching their physicality,” Redick said after the game. “Didn’t do that to any extent at any point in the game.”
The second-year coach acknowledged that his team has had to endure a tough stretch of multiple games lately, and they clearly didn’t think Collin Gillespie would put up a career-high 28 points against them. However, he still didn’t give his players a pass, and he had a hilarious analogy to describe how things went down:
“Maybe there’s brain fog from three in four nights, I don’t know. I don’t remember ever talking about going under versus lasers and Gillespie’s making threes, and Royce O’Neal is making threes. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Redick continued. “It’s a weird sort of thing. It really is. It’s like the Monstars taking over the people that you’ve grown to coach, and they’re not doing anything that they normally do. It’s weird.”
JJ Redick:
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) December 2, 2025
"It's like the Monstars taking over the people that you've grown to coach and they're not doing anything that they normally do. It's weird" pic.twitter.com/APXqmVujNZ
Despite loss to Suns, Lakers should be just fine
All in all, the NBA is the most competitive basketball tournament in the world, so there should be no shame in dropping a game or two, even if it’s at home.
The Lakers are 15-5 for the season and are sitting in the second spot in the Western Conference. They’ve also won eight of their last ten games, and have Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves combining for roughly 63 points per game.
They will now get some much-needed rest before facing off with the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night. Perhaps their loss to the 13-9 Suns will be the spark that keeps them roaming around the top of the NBA's tougher conference.