JJ Redick: ‘I’m Not Doing Another 53 Games Like This’
Lakers coach JJ Redick questioned his team’s professionalism and commitment to winning after Thursday’s 23-point loss to Houston, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The Rockets took control of the game early, building a 14-point lead in the first quarter and sustaining a double-digit advantage throughout the second half.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said. “And 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.”
Redick made similar comments after watching his team lose by 24 points to Phoenix on Tuesday. The Lakers have lost dropped three straight games and six of their last 10 and are now just three games away from falling into play-in tournament territory. Redick cited “effort and execution” as the difference on Thursday as Houston dominated the boards by a 48-25 margin and pulled down 17 offensive rebounds.
“Saturday’s practice — I told the guys — it’s going to be uncomfortable,” Redick said. “The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Luka Doncic was able to return after leaving Saturday’s game with a lower left leg contusion, but he didn’t provide much of a spark. McMenamin notes that he turned the ball over three times in the first 2:11 and finished with six giveaways for the night. Rui Hachimura also returned after missing two games with a groin strain, but Austin Reaves experienced calf soreness and didn’t play after halftime. He’s set to undergo an MRI today.
“I don’t know what has to change, but definitely something needs to change,” Doncic said. “Think we (were) blown out the last three games. It definitely looks, like, terrible. We got to figure out, that’s the thing we have (to do). … We just got to talk about it. Everybody got to talk about it. I know JJ said it’s going to be uncomfortable (for everybody). As they should be. … Everybody has got to give better effort, starting with me.”
LeBron James also had a rough night as L.A. was outscored by 33 points in the 32:26 he was on the court. According to McMenamin, it was James’ worst plus-minus rating since joining the Lakers and the third-worst of his career.
Jarred Vanderbilt, who came off the bench to contribute 11 points and five rebounds, also recognizes that changes need to happen before Sunday’s game against Sacramento.
“Ultimately, certain stuff just needs to be said and certain stuff needs to be done and we got to be able to communicate with each other and be receptive of it, whether it’s criticism or, we got to have them hard conversations,” Vanderbilt said. “JJ [was] alluding to that, that you got to have these conversations. We don’t want this to keep lingering. And right now it’s three in a row, but we don’t want it to keep going the wrong direction.”
Clippers Notes: Lue, Zubac, Paul, Niederhauser
The Clippers‘ season got a little brighter on Saturday with a win over the rival Lakers, but they have a long way to go to recover from a disastrous start, writes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. Prior to the game, coach Tyronn Lue challenged his team to go 35-20 the rest of the way to reach .500 and later amended that to 36-19 for a winning season.
That may not be realistic for a team that entered the night near the bottom of the Western Conference, but Lue wants to give his players something to shoot for. He wasn’t completely happy with the performance on Saturday, but he hopes it will move the team in the right direction.
“We got to start at one,” Lue said. “We told our guys that today. I thought we came out with the right intent. Like I said, being up 15 at halftime, I thought we should have been up probably 20 to 25. And that second half, we just didn’t run through the tape. We got to get better with that. But it is a huge win for us.”
Lue adopted a must-win mentality for Saturday’s game and relied heavily on his stars, playing Kawhi Leonard nearly 42 minutes and James Harden almost 41 minutes. The Clippers snapped a five-game losing streak, picking up their first victory since December 3 and their first win at home in more than seven weeks. Although they’re still in a dire position, holding the league’s fifth-worst record and owing their first-round pick to Oklahoma City, there’s at least some hope for the future.
“I think we’ve probably led in every single game we played,” Harden said. “We’ve had big leads and then allowed them to just (dissolve), however that looks. So just finding a way to win a game, man. And it feels like it’s been forever, but I feel good.”
There’s more on the Clippers:
- The only downside on Saturday was the loss of center Ivica Zubac, who suffered a left ankle injury in the first quarter and was ruled out of the game, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Zubac, who’s averaging 15.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per night, hasn’t missed a game all season. The Clippers said his condition will be evaluated Sunday.
- LeBron James told reporters after the game that he hasn’t talked with longtime friend Chris Paul since the Clippers announced they were “parting ways” with him earlier this month (video link from McMenamin). James declined to give his opinion on the situation, saying, “It’s not for me to comment on, to be honest. It’s none of my business.”
- Lue wasn’t able to offer an update about the status of first-round pick Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who has been experiencing knee soreness, per Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). The rookie center has only made one brief appearance since December 3.
Luka Doncic Leaves Game With Left Leg Contusion
The short-handed Lakers suffered another significant loss Saturday night when Luka Doncic didn’t return to the game after halftime due to a contusion on his left leg, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Doncic entered the contest as the NBA’s leading scorer at 35.2 points per game, but he was noticeably off during the first half. He shot just 4-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc, finishing with 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and four turnovers in 19:34.
“I saw him hobbling towards the end of the first half. He came to me at halftime and said he couldn’t go,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “… I don’t have any other information.”
Doncic left the arena without talking to reporters, and Redick declined to speculate how much time he might miss. A source familiar with the injury told McMenamin it occurred in a collision with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Durability concerns were among the reasons Dallas decided to trade Doncic last February, but he has been mostly healthy in his first full season with the Lakers, appearing in 21 of the team’s first 27 games. McMenamin notes that he missed three games in late October with a lower left leg contusion, but there doesn’t appear to be any connection between that injury and the latest one.
The Lakers were already missing three starters coming into the game, with Austin Reaves out due to a left calf strain, Deandre Ayton dealing with left elbow pain and Rui Hachimura suffering soreness in his groin. All the injuries appear to be short-term, as Redick indicated that Reaves and Ayton could be available for Tuesday’s game at Phoenix, while Hachimura might be sidelined for three-to-five days.
Second-year forward Dalton Knecht started the second half in place of Doncic and finished with two points and four rebounds in 13:29 as the Lakers dropped a 15-point decision to their crosstown rivals. LeBron James scored a season-high 36 points to keep the game competitive, but the rest of the team shot 19-of-60 (31.7%) from the field and 3-of-31 (9.7%) from three-point range.
“No matter what the circumstances are, it’s still next man up,” James said of the injuries. “We’re all professionals. We all got to stay ready. So, obviously it’s very challenging circumstances for our ball club tonight, but I think we played extremely hard, we followed our keys. We just came up short.”
Pacific Notes: Brooks, LeBron, Maluach, Harden
The Suns were a +12 when Dillon Brooks was on the floor in Sunday’s game vs. the Lakers, but were without him in the decisive final seconds of the fourth quarter after he received his second technical foul and was ejected from the game. It was his first ejection since joining the Suns and was a reminder of an important lesson, writes Doug Haller of The Athletic.
“How to stay in the game and be able to affect the game when I’m in the game,” Brooks said of that lesson. “That’s my problem through my whole career, is I let those things happen and then I’m off the floor. Then at the end of the day, how much people hate on me and say I’m not a good player and all that, but when I’m on the floor it changes the whole game.”
Brooks went back and forth with LeBron James during Sunday’s game. The Lakers star received a technical foul in the third quarter for aggressively trying to confront the Suns forward after he felt Brooks intentionally batted the ball at him, then Brooks was hit with his second technical foul with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter after chest-bumping James.
Speaking on Wednesday, Brooks said that James received “a lot of special treatment” and added that he wasn’t sure what LeBron was upset about during that third quarter incident.
“I guess he’s a social-media junkie,” Brooks said. “He be all over the socials, so he be seeing I guess what I’m saying. … Like I’ve (said) he thinks that people should think a way about him or not say nothing about him or play a certain way, and I’m not going to play that way. He gets in his moods or in his modes or whatever it is. I’m all for that.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- With James’ statistics down across the board through his first nine games this season, Zach Kram of ESPN considers whether Father Time has caught up with the 40-year-old, evaluates whether the Lakers forward has permanently adjusted his playing style, and explores the lineups the team is using with its big three of James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves. The Lakers have a -5.1 net rating in 132 minutes with that trio on the floor together, despite the fact that Doncic and Reaves have a +8.6 mark in their 442 minutes sharing the court.
- Suns lottery pick Khaman Maluach has barely played at the NBA level so far this season, logging just 59 total minutes in 12 appearances off the bench. However, the rookie big man is making an impact in the G League, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Maluach has four straight double-doubles for the Valley Suns and is averaging 19.8 points and 15.3 rebounds per game during that stretch. “It’s been great,” Maluach said of his G League experience. “It’s been going good for me, especially at this stage of my development. I need that. I need the reps, the G League reps. It’s great to go down there and just be able to get on the floor, run, get up and down, and get better now. I get to get film and watch film and watch what to work on because sometimes, some stuff doesn’t really show in practice. It can only show during the games.”
- Clippers guard James Harden has been ruled out for the team’s matchup with Oklahoma City on Thursday due to a left calf contusion, tweets Joey Linn of SI. Harden appeared to be affected by the calf issue in Monday’s loss to Memphis, as he scored just 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting. His status for Saturday’s game against the Lakers is up in the air, Linn adds.
Lakers Notes: Jones, Defense, LeBron, Smart
Pelicans wing Herbert Jones is the player most frequently mentioned by rival scouts and executives as a potential in-season trade target for the Lakers, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic.
However, despite rumors that New Orleans is more open to fielding calls on Jones than in the past, sources tell Woike that New Orleans isn’t particularly interested in moving the defensive ace, who will become trade-eligible on January 14. As Woike points out, the Lakers would have a hard time putting together a viable package for Jones even if the Pelicans were open to a deal, since Los Angeles can only trade one future first-round pick.
That tradable first-rounder – which would be for either the 2031 or 2032 draft – isn’t considered as valuable by rival teams as it once was, according to Woike. Last season’s trade for Luka Doncic, as well as Mark Walter‘s purchase of the team, make it less likely that the Lakers will bottom out in the coming years, which limits the upside of even a far-out draft pick.
Here are a few more items of interest on the Lakers:
- The reason the Lakers would be so interested in Jones is that he would provide the team with a much-needed defensive stopper. After giving up 132 points to San Antonio on Wednesday, L.A. now ranks 21st in the NBA in defensive rating (116.7). LeBron James expressed confidence that the Lakers will “continue to get better” on that end of the court, per Woike, but both James and head coach JJ Redick stressed the importance of establishing the right habits. “Our second half against Philly (on Sunday) was the most physical we’ve been, particularly off-ball,” Redick said, according to Law Murray of The Athletic. “But the physicality, and the shifts, and then the closeouts, that’s the essence of our defense. So if we’re not doing those things well, it’s hard for us to guard.”
- James’ longtime agent Rich Paul expressed during the first episode of the ‘Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul’ podcast for The Ringer (YouTube link) that he doesn’t think the Lakers “have enough” to get to the Western Conference Finals this season. Asked on Wednesday about the Lakers’ postseason upside, LeBron himself said it’s still too early to speculate. “What I can say is that the habits that we build throughout the regular season each month [are what is important],” James said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “If we are in a position to make it to the postseason and be able to get to that point, well, we have to build it now. But as far as talking about what type of damage we’re going to do in the postseason in December, that’s not right for the basketball gods, not for me.”
- Marcus Smart‘s return to action from a back injury was a bright spot in an disappointing NBA Cup quarterfinal loss on Wednesday, writes Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times. Smart scored 26 points and was a +2 in 28 minutes of action off the bench. Spurs players also made just 3-of-11 shots when the veteran guard was the primary defender. “When he guards, when he talks to us, we listen,” Doncic said. “Just got to be a little bit more of what he’s doing.”
Los Angeles Notes: Paul, Lue, Smart, Kleber, James
Chris Paul says he’s “at peace” with the Clippers’ decision to “part ways” with him and is looking forward to his next NBA opportunity, according to Jordan Greene of People Magazine (hat tip to ESPN).
“I’m actually at peace with everything,” he said. “More than anything, I’m excited about being around and getting a chance to play a small role in whatever anything looks like next.”
On a related subject, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue denies reports that he wasn’t on speaking terms with Paul.
“That ain’t true,” Lue said, per Clippers beat writer Joey Linn (Twitter video link). “We were talking. How he gonna play and I’m not talking to him? There was a stretch when he wasn’t gonna play and be out of the rotation, it was tough for him because he’s a competitor.”
Lue added he wasn’t part of the final conversation with Paul when the future Hall of Famer was told by team officials that he was no longer welcome around the club. Lue added that Clippers players aren’t happy about the decision but he has “no problem with Chris.”
Here’s more on the Los Angeles teams:
- Lakers guard Marcus Smart is not on the injury report for the team’s NBA Cup game against the Spurs on Wednesday. Smart missed the last six games due to a back ailment. “Back is feeling good. Felt good in practice today … I’m gonna give it a shot tomorrow and see how it feels,” Smart said, according to Lakers reporter Mike Trudell (Twitter link).
- In fact, the Lakers could be at full strength on Wednesday. Maxi Kleber (lumbar muscle strain) is the only player who is considered questionable to play, NBA insider Marc Stein tweets.
- LeBron James scored 29 points — a season high — against Philadelphia on Sunday, including 10 straight points in the fourth quarter. The Lakers forward feels he’s rounding into form, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “At 40 years old, I mean, it just takes a while for my body to kind of get back into a rhythm,” James said. “And so it felt good (Sunday) to kind of feel like myself a little bit.”
Rich Paul: LeBron James Will Finish Season With Lakers
Discussing LeBron James‘ future in the first of the new ‘Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul’ podcast for The Ringer (YouTube link), James’ longtime agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, said there’s no chance his client won’t finish the 2025/26 season with the Lakers (hat tip to RealGM).
“Is LeBron, realistically, a guy who could not be on the Lakers at the end of this year?” Kellerman asked.
“No,” Paul quickly replied.
“He will be on the Lakers at the end of this year?” Kellerman said.
“Yeah,” Paul said. “Where’s he going to go?”
James, who is in his record-setting 23rd NBA season, has never been traded over the course of his long NBA career, with the exception of a 2010 sign-and-trade for logistical purposes after he had already decided to leave Cleveland for Miami as a free agent.
Still, there was some trade speculation involving the four-time MVP in the offseason after Paul put out a cryptic statement at the time James exercised his 2025/26 option. That statement referred to LeBron valuing “a realistic chance” of winning a title, recognizing that the Lakers were “building for the future,” and wanting to evaluate what was best for him.
That trade speculation died down within a few weeks when it became clear that James, who holds a no-trade clause, wasn’t actively seeking a deal.
There have been rumblings since then about the possibility that the 2025/26 season could be LeBron’s last in Los Angeles, even if he doesn’t retire, since he’s on an expiring contract and won’t become eligible for an extension before he reaches free agency. The Lakers, meanwhile, have pivoted to building around Luka Doncic and will likely be prioritizing a new long-term contract for Austin Reaves in the summer of 2026. If James doesn’t return, L.A. could open up a significant chunk of cap room to use before re-signing Reaves.
[RELATED: LeBron James Remains Undecided On Playing Beyond This Season]
However, it doesn’t sound as if any decisions about James’ future in Los Angeles will be made until the offseason. With the Lakers off to a 17-6 start and holding the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, they’re well positioned in the race for playoff positioning and have enough movable assets to pursue in-season upgrades on the trade market to fortify the roster around James, Doncic, and Reaves.
Lakers Notes: LeBron, Redick, Smart, Doncic
LeBron James has almost reached the limit of games he can miss and still qualify for postseason awards, but Lakers coach JJ Redick indicated that won’t be a factor in deciding when he’ll play, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register (subscription required). James was held out of Friday’s loss in Boston and is listed as questionable for Sunday’s contest in Philadelphia due to right sciatica and left foot joint arthritis. He has already missed 16 games, so he can only skip one more under the 65-game rule.
“LeBron and I talk very regularly. Mike (Mancias, James’ longtime athletic trainer and the Lakers’ athletic performance liaison) and I talk regularly. It’s never come up as something that’s important,” Redick said. “The biggest thing as we got closer to training camp was getting him healthy, and then as we started the season, getting healthy enough to play, and then re-acclimating him. I want all my guys to get whatever award they deserve. Austin (Reaves), Luka (Doncic), LeBron, like whoever, I want them to get awards. That’s great for them, but it’s not – the list of things that you have to worry about and think about as a player and coach, it’s so far down the list.”
James was sidelined for the first 14 games of the season with sciatica and didn’t make his debut until November 18. He has appeared in six games and is averaging 14 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 32.8 minutes per night with .413/.259/.550 shooting numbers. He’ll turn 41 later this month, so limiting the wear and tear on his body is Redick’s primary concern.
There’s more on the Lakers:
- Marcus Smart will miss his sixth straight game on Sunday and his injury designation has changed, Price adds. He’s now dealing with a left lumbar muscle strain rather than lower back injury management. Smart has appeared in 14 games and made nine starts in his first season with L.A.
- James’ historic streak of double-digit scoring games was snapped at 1,297 Thursday at Toronto, Price states in a separate story. James had eight points going into the final possession when he opted to pass to Rui Hachimura, who sank a game-winning three-pointer. “Just playing the game the right way,” James said. “You always make the right play. That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career. There was not even one second-guessing that.”
- Doncic and his fiancée announced the birth of their second child Saturday in an Instagram post, per Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times (subscription required). Doncic didn’t play in Friday’s game, but he has been removed from the team’s injury report for Sunday.
Pacific Notes: Brooks, M. Williams, Hachimura, Sabonis
Suns forward Dillon Brooks relished beating the Lakers in Los Angeles on Monday as well as the opportunity to trash talk LeBron James, Tim MacMahon writes for ESPN.com.
As MacMahon notes, Brooks infamously got under James’ skin during the first round of the 2023 playoffs with Memphis, only to see the strategy backfire — he struggled for the rest of the series while James dominated, and the Grizzlies were eliminated in six games. Ever the antagonist, Brooks poured in 33 points on Monday — one off his season-high — and “relentlessly” mocked James and the crowd.
“I love playing in this arena,” Brooks said. “They show me a lot of love in here, and I reciprocate it back. I’m a competitor, man. I don’t really like the smiling and the giggling and all that, so just letting them know that I’m here. And I’m still rising.”
Phoenix cruised to an easy victory on Monday despite missing Devin Booker (right groin injury) for the majority of the contest. Brooks was the driving force behind the result.
“Sometimes, I’m trying to tell him to chill out, but I think he just blacks out,” said point guard Collin Gillespie, who scored a career-high 28 points on Monday and whom Brooks has nicknamed “Villain Jr.” due to his tenacity. “That’s Dillon Brooks. It fuels us. Obviously, we love when he gets going. He’s the tone-setter for us. Consistent energy, brings it every night. He’s fearless. Doesn’t back down from anybody, and he will go toe-to-toe with anybody.”
We have more from the Pacific:
- Now a member of the Suns, center Mark Williams admitted he’d have a “little extra” motivation facing the Lakers on Monday after L.A. traded for him in February — only to rescind the deal over to what the team said was a failed physical (story via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). Williams said he was never told exactly why the Lakers nixed the trade with Charlotte. “Not in real detail,” said Williams, who is averaging 12.9 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals through 18 games (25.4 minutes per contest). “I’m kind of past it now. Just moved on from it.” The ex-Duke center will be a restricted free agent in 2026.
- Entering Monday, Lakers forward Rui Hachimura had scored in double figures in 14 of his 18 appearances. The 27-year-old had his worst outing of the season in Monday’s loss, going scoreless — he missed his lone shot attempt — and pulling down one rebound in 23 minutes. “I don’t remember when I had the ball this whole game,” Hachimura said, per Daniel Starkand of Lakers Nation (Twitter link). “I mean, that’s happened. Playing with these guys, I signed up for that. I understand it… But with this, I think the whole team, everyone knows and understands, that’s not how we’re gonna win. Those games that we’ve been winning, we’ve been passing to each other, we’ve been trusting each other and playing for each other to win those games. So it’s a tough one for me, but it is what it is. It’s one of those games where I gotta just [forget it] and move on to the next game.”
- Kings center Domantas Sabonis is likely at least a couple weeks away — if not more — from returning from a partially torn meniscus, but his injured left knee is progressing well and he’s traveling with the team on its three-game road trip, which will conclude next Tuesday at Indiana, as Sean Cunningham of NBC Sacramento relays (via Twitter). The Kings clarified that Sabonis is not yet practicing, which was expected given his initial return timeline. The Lithuanian big man has popped up in trade rumors this fall amid Sacramento’s poor start to the season.
Lakers Notes: LeBron, Smart, Ayton, Kleber, Luka, Reaves, Borrego
As expected, LeBron James is not on the Lakers‘ injury report for Monday’s game vs. Phoenix, which indicates he’ll be available to play, as Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group tweets.
The superstar forward sat out Sunday’s game with what the team called left foot injury management. Head coach JJ Redick explained prior to the win over New Orleans that Los Angeles was “just being cautious” with James, who has been dealing with a foot issue, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter links). Redick added that the team hopes to have James available for back-to-backs in the future.
The NBA’s oldest player extended his own league record last season by making his 21st consecutive All-NBA team — no other player has more than 15 total All-NBA appearances. James, who missed the first 14 games of the season due to sciatica on his right side, must play in 61 of the Lakers’ final 63 games in order to remain eligible to continue that streak, due to the 65-game rule.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- While James will return tonight, veteran guard Marcus Smart will miss his third straight game — and his injury designation has changed from lower back spasms to lower back injury management, Price notes. Redick expressed confidence on Monday that the 31-year-old would be back sooner rather later, calling him day-to-day, per Jovan Buha (Twitter link). “We expect him to be back soon,” Redick said. “It’s not a long-term thing.”
- Starting center Deandre Ayton appeared to aggravate a right knee bruise in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, an injury which cost him about a game-and-a-half last week, Woike tweets. However, the Lakers held a comfortable lead at the time and the former No. 1 overall pick isn’t on the team’s injury report ahead of Monday’s game.
- As Woike details in an entertaining story for The Athletic, during a poor stretch of play in the third quarter in which their lead was trimmed to 11 points, backup big man Maxi Kleber inexplicably air-balled an open layup on an and-one attempt (YouTube link), causing his teammates on the bench to start laughing. “We were just caught off guard. … We all thought he was going to dunk it. … Shot a fade-away layup. Crazy,” Gabe Vincent said Sunday. The Lakers immediately went on an 8-0 run after the moment of levity, which also served as a reminder of the good vibes around the team — the players often make fun of each other in a lighthearted way, Woike writes. “It’s very important,” Kleber said. “It’s a long season. Obviously, this was a funny play. But it could be serious, where we have a bad stretch, or a bad game, and it’s important that we stick together as a team. And that we can laugh about things and just work it out and not take it too hard. Because we know we’re good. And I think it helps to regain focus quickly.”
- It wasn’t the prettiest game, but the Lakers won their seventh straight contest on Sunday to improve to 15-4 on the season. Backcourt stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves combined for 67 points and 15 assists, notes Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times, becoming just the fourth pair of teammates in the past 50 years to each score at least 30 points in three consecutive games. “The gravity that he has on the court, it’s impossible to guard him any certain way because [of] his ability to pass the ball, his unselfishness and his shot-making ability,” Reaves said of Doncic. “Then, once you blitz him, then you have advantage basketball and we like our chances.”
- Prior to Sunday’s game, Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego reflected on being a finalist for the Lakers’ coaching vacancy during the 2024 offseason, which ultimately went to Redick (Twitter video link via Dave McMenamin of ESPN). “I grew up a Lakers fan, number one, so to come here and interview for the job was so surreal and like a dream,” Borrego said in part.