The Los Angeles Lakers have a three game lead in the Pacific Division, but all is not well in Tinseltown, especially after a home blowout defeat to the Houston Rockets in primetime on Christmas Day. And ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins wants head coach JJ Redick to take more responsibility for his team’s performances.
In spite of their 19-10 overall record, the Lakers have lost three straight games. On Christmas, they lost by 23 points at home to Houston in what was an embarrassing effort. After the game, Redick blasted his team’s professionalism in the press conference, saying that the Lakers were a “terrible basketball team” and that the players don’t care enough.
While JJ Redick called out his players, Perkins called out Redick on SportsCenter after the game.
Perk:
“Everybody find it cute and funny when he goes on his rants and publicly calls out his team but JJ Redick gotta do better as well. It’s always everybody else fault but not JJ Redick’s. That’s a problem for me” https://t.co/NwJJC30LN0 pic.twitter.com/Taaqks2ntT
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) December 26, 2025
“JJ Redick, everybody finds it cute and funny when he goes on these rants and publicly calls out his team, but JJ Redick gotta do a better job as well,” Perkins said. It’s always everybody else’s fault but not JJ Redick’s. That’s a problem for me. And he talks about his team not being consistent, not playing hard, not doing the little things. Well guess what? That’s a reflection on the coach. When your team is not responding, your team is not putting in the effort that’s needed to be to compete at a high level, that means that they are not listening to the coach and the respect level is not there.”
Kendrick Perkins didn’t have criticism for JJ Redick alone. He also called out Lakers superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic as well – James for his body language and Doncic for his complaining to the referees on a constant basis.
And they were all sentiments that he echoed on the day after Christmas in an appearance on Get Up where he lit into Redick, James, and Doncic once again.
“It’s always somebody else’s fault. It’s never JJ Redick’s fault.” 😳
—@KendrickPerkins on JJ Redick’s comments after the Lakers’ loss to the Rockets pic.twitter.com/Y2GdJyb9uI
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) December 26, 2025
Kendrick Perkins and JJ Redick traded barbs when they were ESPN colleagues so it’s no surprise that the Perk isn’t a fan of the Lakers coach.
In fact, when he made his debut with the Lakers, Perkins admitted on national television that he wanted to criticize Redick, but didn’t have the ammunition to do so. Now that the Lakers have Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves as their big three and they aren’t living up to their full potential, it’s now open season on the Los Angeles head coach.