For a moment in the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, it appeared the Lakers had found the right way to play.
After trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, the Lakers tied the game at 79 when Luka Dončić scored through an Ausar Thompson foul — Thompson’s fourth personal — putting Detroit in foul trouble. Over the next 16 minutes, the Lakers rebounded, forced turnovers and let their two stars shine. Dončić scored 14 points and went 6 of 8 from the line. LeBron James scored 12 points and hit three 3s.
But the Lakers’ couldn’t stem the tide. The Pistons shot 58.3 percent from the field down the stretch, outscoring the Lakers 43-17 over the next 13:38 and turned a tie game into garbage time after Dončić fouled Duncan Robinson through a rare Detroit 3-point shot.
The 128-106 Lakers loss ended the 2025 portion of their season and erased any momentum from Sunday’s win in Sacramento, despite Lakers coach JJ Redick promising an “uncomfortable” reset.
Detroit entered Tuesday’s game as one of the league’s worst shooting teams. Yet, the Pistons only needed 24 attempts from 3 to match Los Angeles’ 11 makes. The Pistons also made more shots in the paint (37-of-47) than the Lakers even attempted (22-of-34). The Lakers surrendered 74 paint points, got hammered by the Pistons in transition, giving up a season-high 31 fast-break points, and for the third time this month, they allowed 30 points off turnovers.
But the Lakers’ stars weren’t talking about defense in the postgame news conference — the focus was instead on giveaways.
“We had a lot of pick-6s tonight,” said James, who is now 41 years old. “They’re a fast, explosive team. All that athleticism.”
The Lakers sit at 20-11, but they will enter 2026 having been outscored by 13 points over their 31 games. In many ways, the Lakers are in a better place than they were this time last year, when they were 18-14 with a minus-77 point differential (perhaps that was the first sign of Dončić’s arrival in 2025). But the Lakers have improvements to be make, and it starts with Dončić and James being on the same page with their teammates, and each other.
Against the Pistons, James had a poor assist-turnover ratio of 4:5. But none of James’ turnovers were pick-6s. He had three dead-ball turnovers in the first half, got stolen in the backcourt by Javonte Green in the fourth quarter that led directly to a foul and then got picked off by Pistons center Jalen Duren on a fastbreak that was killed by Marcus Smart drawing a Duren foul.
Dončić, on the other hand, had a nightmarish eight turnovers. After a first-quarter traveling violation, the last seven of Dončić’s turnovers were Pistons steals. That didn’t include some of his worst shots that operated like turnovers, such as this air-balled contested 3 that led to one of Cade Cunningham’s 11 assists, as he found a streaking Isaiah Stewart for a fast-break dunk:
On a late second-quarter play, Dončić held the ball in front of the Lakers bench as Jake LaRavia cut off of a Deandre Ayton screen at the top of the key. As LaRavia cut, James was set to come off of the same Ayton screen. Dončić had a choice to read Cunningham in the paint; if Cunningham stayed with James, then LaRavia would have been open for a layup. Cunningham stayed in the paint, which would have left James wide open.
But Dončić threw the pass in the paint anyway. Not only did LaRavia have no chance to do anything with the ball even if he caught it, but Pistons reserve center Paul Reed was sinking back into the paint off of Ayton, a non-threat from 3-point distance. Reed stole Dončić’s pass, and Cunningham gleefully returned the interception for one of his game-high 12 field goals:
But that was before Dončić tied the game in the third quarter. Dončić’s carelessness with the ball intensified early in the fourth quarter to ensure the Lakers wouldn’t threaten the Pistons again, starting with an interception by Duren intended for James that unlocked a Marcus Sasser fast-break 3:
“The offensive stretch that we had there — end of the third, start of the fourth — I’ll rewatch it tonight, but we had like five turnovers in that stretch,” Redick said. “The turnovers, the fast-break points, points in the paint, that just killed us tonight.”
In another play, Sasser sat on Smart on the left wing following a Dončić pick-and-roll with Jaxson Hayes. Dončić was not comfortable shooting, terminated his dribble, and threw a lollipop that Sasser had to track down all the way in the opposite corner. Once Sasser got control of the steal, he saw Stewart alone because Hayes never ran back with him.
The issue for the Lakers is that this is the team they will have for most of January. Austin Reaves is out with a re-injured calf. LaRavia started because Rui Hachimura is staring at a week-long absence due to a calf injury of his own. Gabe Vincent is out with a back injury.
Deandre Ayton (and JJ Redick) have referred to Lakers not having a full complement of players to work with often.
And … they’re not gonna have a full complement anytime soon, if ever again this season.
So I asked Ayton what he’s gonna do about that reality pic.twitter.com/gV424Nzacn
— Law Murray 🎄 (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 27, 2025
Reaves and Dončić had an offensive flow that the Lakers are struggling to replicate with James and Dončić. There’s a dearth of ballhandling, and it creates a conflict where the Lakers are trying to optimize Dončić’s heavy on-ball role and Reaves’ emergence by getting James off the ball more. As we saw against a feckless Kings defense, the Lakers don’t miss Reaves as much. But against a physical and deep Pistons team that still had waves of defenders despite foul trouble and a hip injury to Tobias Harris, the ballhandling issues are pronounced, and James isn’t nearly as effective.
“I haven’t really been on the ball as much; I’ve been playing off the ball a lot,” said James, who has averaged 66.1 touches per game this season, well behind Dončić (91.7) and Reaves (76.3), per Second Spectrum. “It’s something I can get back into it, but it’s still, got to get back into the rhythm of that, you know. So, AR and Luka gets us into our offense. Marcus now has stepped up to kind of help with that role. Nick Smith is gonna help us with that role as well. If I need it, to do that, the coaches ask me to do that, then I can do that. But I’ve been playing mostly off the ball this year.”
Asked Luka Dončić about the Lakers turnovers and how much having LeBron James on the ball may help with reducing them, with LeBron being off ball as much as he is
Luka didn’t say much
“Too many turnovers. Gotta stop losing the ball.” pic.twitter.com/0jT7qSLog2
— Law Murray 🎄 (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 31, 2025
Ultimately, Dončić and James have to figure out their chemistry. When Reaves and Dončić shared the floor this season, the Lakers outscored foes by 72 points in 452 minutes, the highest of any Dončić two-man tandem. When James and Dončić have shared the floor this season, the Lakers have been outscored by 57 points in 303 minutes, the worst of any Dončić two-man tandem.
Whatever James does, it’s clear that he sees himself as a dependent for the time being. And that leads back to Dončić, the best player on the team who also isn’t as versatile as James when it comes to being on or off the ball. At 41, James is still the player who runs and cuts and screens and rolls. Dončić will be toggled on the ball more than anyone, as he should be. But that also means that when his unideal shot selection, turnovers and dissatisfaction with uncalled fouls increase in frequency, it puts the Lakers in holes they can’t recover from.
All of it circles back to execution, especially on the defensive end where lapses have led to live-ball turnovers and repeatedly flipped momentum as it did Tuesday. James acknowledged as much after another loss.
“It’s hard to get back. We’re not getting back,” James said. “Teams are running us. We give up a lot of transition points. Turn the ball over, sometimes offensive rebounds, things of that nature. Just gotta get better on that side.”