The Los Angeles Lakers are currently less than two weeks away from kicking off their 2025-26 season with a home game against the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers recently received word that superstar LeBron James would be out of the lineup for the first few weeks of the season due to an injury, as reported by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania.
Still, the Lakers are hoping to hit the ground running this year, and recently, head coach JJ Redick got 100% real on the winning habits his team is trying to build.
“JJ Redick said he liked what he saw from the body language and interpersonal interactions between his players during their scrimmage on Saturday,” reported Dave McMenamin of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
“To me, the best teams, the best groups, the best organizations in any field, small interactions are so important,” said Redick.
That makes it all the more troubling that James and co-star Luka Doncic have reportedly not been practicing with the team for vague reasons leading up to this season, which could makie it difficult for Los Angeles to establish chemistry early in the year.
While the Lakers are bringing back most of the same core from a year ago, they did make some additions over the offseason, including buyout market additions Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton. They are hoping Smart, the 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, will be able to help them out with their perimeter defense, while Ayton should add something to their froncourt depth.
It remains to be seen what starting lineup Redick will trot out with James now out for the opening portion of the season.
In any case, the Lakers are set to kick off their season with a home game against the Golden State Warriors on October 21. That game is slated to get underway at 10:00 PM ET.
