Injuries slowed down Ayton while he was in Portland, but he also was released partly due to character concerns. While Ayton has never been a troublemaker per se, his effort and energy became an open question mark after numerous lackluster performances in the past.

Outside of an outburst in the loss to the Orlando Magic, Ayton has largely been a non-factor in Lakers’ games. He’s even started to grumble about his role, alleging that Los Angeles is trying to use him solely like Houston Rockets center Clint Capela.

Capela saw Ayton’s comments and responded to the Lakers big man on his personal Instagram account:

Clint Capela responds… pic.twitter.com/JIAaw5W7V2

— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) February 27, 2026

Capela is a textbook pick-and-roll center who can catch lobs or grab offensive rebounds for putbacks, two things that Los Angeles need Ayton to do to be successful. Ayton seemed to embrace the dirty work during the early portion of the 2025-26 season, but he has seen a dip in production that coincides with the team’s recent struggles.

Against his former team the Phoenix Suns, Ayton went back to being nearly invisible as he recorded two points and four rebounds in the loss. He wasn’t nearly as engaged on both ends of the floor as he should have been, so head coach JJ Redick decided to close with a small-ball lineup instead.

As the season goes on, it looks more and more likely that Ayton won’t live up to the hope that the organization had for him. Process-wise, Ayton was still the best option on the table for a Los Angeles team that needed a true big man

If Ayton can’t get back to playing like he did earlier in the season, then the purple and gold are going to be in trouble the rest of the way.

Deandre Ayton upset with Lakers’ recent play but believes they can turn it around

Deandre Ayton can’t be solely to blame for the Lakers’ recent troubles as there are several things not going right. While Ayton acknowledged he’s upset with how they’ve played as of late, he still believes they can turn it around.

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No longer the athlete he was in his prime, Kareem relied on his number of post moves, particularly the sky hook, to get baskets over anyone who tried to guard him. On Feb. 5, 1985, the Houston Rockets had a pair of Hall-of-Famers more than a decade younger than him, and neither stood a chance.

Abdul-Jabbar led the Lakers with 40 points and eight rebounds in a 113-104 victory over the Rockets. The win was the Lakers’ fourth straight in a streak that would ultimately stretch to nine before they finally suffered a loss.

Magic Johnson also had a great night with 18 points and 19 assists, James Worthy had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Mike McGee was huge off the bench with 18 points. But this was all about The Cap.

What truly makes this performance stand out is that Kareem was in his 16th NBA season. Most players don’t have careers that span that long, let alone are still productive. But here was Kareem, still leading the Lakers in scoring at 22 points per game.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won Finals MVP

Abdul-Jabbar would even go on to win NBA Finals MVP this season, becoming the oldest player to do so. The opposition also plays a role on this day as the Rockets had two seven-footers in Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson.

Olajuwon was a rookie and Sampson was in his second season, both were amazing athletes and neither could contain the old timer. In fairness, they did each have great games on their end as Sampson finished with 33 points and 15 rebounds while Olajuwon had 30 and 13.

But neither was on the level as Kareem was on this day in Lakers history.

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That was in addition to plenty of stars featured with rookie phenom Cooper Flagg, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama, among other. Last year, ratings were a hotly debated topic as the NFL tried to take over Christmas Day while many NBA fans complain that the season is too long with numerous stars sitting out of marquee games.

Under a new media rights deal, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime have spiced up the NBA viewing experience though, along with ESPN. So far, the results seem to be paying off as this year’s Christmas Day slate was the most-watched in 15 years, via NBA Communications:

The NBA delivered its most-watched Christmas Day in 15 years. More than 47 million people in the U.S. watched the NBA on Christmas Day across Disney networks – up 45% vs. last year.

(Excludes the 2011-12 season which started on Christmas Day.) pic.twitter.com/evgUQjlYWp

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 31, 2025

The NBA was the most-viewed brand across social media on Christmas Day, generating 1.6 billion views – up 23% vs. last year.

(Source: Videocites) pic.twitter.com/1etiztHJO7

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 31, 2025

The New York Knicks had an impressive comeback win at Madison Square Garden over the Cleveland Cavaliers, which featured a strong start to kick off Christmas. Then, Wembanyama and company beat the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder for the third time in a matter of weeks.

Lastly, Jokic put up 56 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists in the nightcap in a thrilling overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, where Edwards put up 44 points of his own. Overall, this holiday was a success for the NBA after battling outside criticisms from fans, and hopefully, that positive momentum carries on throughout the rest of this season.

LeBron James discusses significance of playing on Christmas Day

Nobody knows what it is like to play on Christmas like Lakers star LeBron James. Now in his 23rd season, James played in his 20th Christmas Day game and the one downside of that is that he couldn’t spend time with his family.

When asked about the significance of playing on a holiday, he acknowledged that he would rather spend the entire day with his loved ones. However, the 41-year-old knows that at the end of the day, he needs to suit up and put on a performance for his team and it’s an honor to get to play on Christmas.

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However, the Lakers entered their Christmas matchup against the Houston Rockets playing some of their worst basketball of the 2025-26 season. Los Angeles had lost two games in a row in embarrassing fashion, so the fear was that they would struggle against a physical and athletic Houston squad.

Those concerns proved to be valid as the Lakers were blown out by the Rockets in a listless effort almost from the jump. Los Angeles was unable to keep up with Houston, who continually outworked them on the boards and on the defensive end.

Following the dispiriting loss, head coach JJ Redick didn’t mince words about his team’s performance.

“The two words of the day were effort and execution. I feel like when we’ve done both of those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team. When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team. And tonight, we were a terrible basketball team,” Redick admitted.

“And that started legitimately right away. When you point to that, I would assume that Austin’s rebounds in that first two misses, I think that would have been talked about a lot.”

Redick continued to call out the players’ efforts, saying that the group isn’t showing enough care on the floor.

“Because we don’t care enough right now,” Redick said when asked why the team wasn’t able to execute their game plan. “That’s the part that bothers you a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don’t care enough to be a professional. We have it. I always say this about culture. I always say this about a good team being a functioning organism. It can change like that. We don’t have it right now.”

Redick also vowed that the team’s next practice will be a wake up call for the players because he is fed up with the current performances:

“We practice them all the time. Again, it goes back to what I said the other night. It’s a matter of making the choice. Too often, we have guys that don’t want to make that choice. It’s pretty consistent who those guys are. Saturday’s practice, I told the guys, it’s going to be uncomfortable. The meeting is going to be uncomfortable,” he said.

“I’m not doing another 53 games like this. Pre-game, you mentioned a stretch in March of last season where you thought maybe this was a little similar, or at least the feeling of it was similar.”

Redick has every reason to be upset as L.A. simply didn’t compete as hard as they could have against Houston. The recent trend has been the Lakers trying to make up ground for slow starts, though that is a fragile strategy when the defense is so compromised at the moment.

It’s clear that the team will need to make some roster changes in order to raise its ceiling, but the challenge for Redick and the rest of the coaching staff is to find ways to keep them from falling too far down the standings. A winnable game against the Sacramento Kings is coming up on Sunday and it’ll be interesting to see if Redick can get the Lakers to respond the right way.

JJ Redick called out anonymous Lakers player

Redick is adamant that he and the Lakers players have a good understanding of what’s expected of them and their knowledge of the scheme. However, Redick recently called out an anonymous player for now knowing what the defensive term “flood” meant in the middle of a game, so there’s clearly room for improvement.

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The two met on Christmas Day as the Lakers played the Rockets, in what was the highest-scoring matchup in NBA history between the league’s No. 1 all-time scorer and No. 8. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and more shined on Christmas Day, but Durant, James and Stephen Curry remained an important part of one of the most important days of the NBA regular season.

It’s unclear how many more times Durant and LeBron will face off against one another. But the love and appreciation the two stars have for one another will never fade, and Durant spoke about that after Houston’s win over L.A.

“I feel like the standard that LeBron has set for greatness and being prepared and loving the game and enthusiasm for the game is something I’m trying to emulate as I get older. Just grateful for every matchup we have,” Durant said.

One thing that has defined the older generation of superstar in the NBA today — James, Durant, Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and more — is the mutual respect they have been open about with regard to one another.

Previous generations had much more angst and vitriol towards one another, perhaps increasing the meaning of rivalries and specific matchups. But this generation has been extremely fun to watch as they dominate their sport while they show respect to one another as athletes and people.

NBA fans should, like Durant, cherish each moment they have to watch these older stars compete against one another, as it’s still possible that this season is the last time to do so.

Luka Doncic: Lakers need to make changes

Luka Doncic was honest in his assessment of the Lakers after their frustrating loss to the Rockets on Christmas as he admitted that things need to change.

“I don’t know what has to change, but, definitely something needs to change,” Luka said. “I think we’ve blown out the last two leads. [It] definitely looks terrible, but we have to figure out. We have to talk about it. Everybody has to talk about it. I know JJ [Redick] says it’s going to be uncomfortable, as it should be.”

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