After a fast start for Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers against the New Orleans Pelicans, it would lead to the 133-121 victory on Sunday night, giving the team its sixth straight win. Though the Lakers were without LeBron James due to a left foot injury, Doncic and company got the job done, though head coach JJ Redick believes there's more to achieve.
Los Angeles started hot, leading New Orleans 46-27 after one quarter in the books, but the Pelicans would find a way to make the game competitive enough, despite them not having Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, Herbert Jones, and Jordan Poole. With Los Angeles at a 15-4 record, Redick would say that the team “should be proud” of the early results, but used a pizza analogy to drive the point home that there is “room for improvement.”
“It's nice to sit here and be 15-4 and be like, ‘Oh, the results are great,' and we should be proud of being 15-4 after 19 games,” Redick said. “It's a great start, there's a lot of slices of pizza left in the box that we can still get after, like there's a lot of room for improvement for our team, which to me, is a positive.”
"There's a lot of slices of pizza left in the box that we can still get after, there's a lot of room for improvement for our team, which to me is a positive."
JJ Redick talks to the media after the #LakeShow defeat the Pelicans 133-121 for their 7th straight win. pic.twitter.com/pzH7f37jCy
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 1, 2025
JJ Redick on the Lakers having two separate 7-2 stretches
As the Lakers had a 14-4 record heading into the Pelicans game, it featured a pair of 7-2 stretches for the team, where the final game of each of those runs had a similarity, as pointed out by Redick. Starting the season 7-2, Los Angeles lost to the Atlanta Hawks by 20 points on Nov. 8, who missed Trae Young among others, a situation that Redick didn't want to relive.
“We challenged the guys before the game,” Redick said. “We got off to a 7-2 start, we've been 7-2 in our last nine games. The last time we were in a 7-2 stretch, we played Atlanta, right before the game, bunch of guys are out. So it's similar, you know, Zion's out, Trey's out, Herb's out, Poole has been out. So we wanted to get off to a good start. We wanted to play with the right intent. Thought we did that.”
At any rate, the Lakers look for eight straight wins on Monday night against the Phoenix Suns.
