NBA New Year’s resolutions
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The Los Angeles Lakers hung around with the Detroit Pistons through most of three quarters Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena, but an ugly fourth quarter in which they were outscored by 14 points killed what had been a closely contested matchup. One that spiraled into a 128-106 blowout loss.
The fourth quarter seemed to be an accumulation of frustration for the Lakers over turnovers, officiating and their recent stretch of injuries as LA has now lost four out of its last five games.
Lakers let mistakes, Pistons’ physicality get to them
“I think there’s probably a level of frustration when you’re turning the ball over and you’re feeling like you’re getting fouled,” Redick told reporters. “There’s, frustration there, for sure, but I mean, again, I said it in here. We said it this morning: they’re going to foul every possession. It’s just, you got to play through it.”
The Lakers turned the ball over 21 times and while the Pistons themselves had 20 turnovers on the night, they capitalized on the Lakers’ mistakes with 31 points off turnovers compared to just 19 from LA.
“We got to definitely match their physicality. That’s the whole point,” said Luka Doncic, who led the game in scoring and assists with 30 and 11, but also led with eight turnovers. “We got to match how they play. You seen the refs let it go, so we should’ve played with more physicality for sure.”
Lakers still searching for identity amid injuries
Postgame, Redick gave credit to the Pistons’ size and athleticism, telling reporters that level of physicality “is in their DNA.” As for the Lakers, he’s still trying to figure out what their identity actually is as the calendar flips to 2026.
Recalling a conversation he had with Phil Jackson at the beginning of last season, Redick recalled Jackson saying that he knew who his team was by Thanksgiving. That’s harder to do when the team is as plagued by injuries as this year’s Lakers have been.
LeBron James’ season debut was delayed until Nov. 18 due to sciatica nerve pain. Currently, the Lakers are down Rui Hachimura (calf), Gabe Vincent (back), and Austin Reaves (calf). The absence of Reaves, who is averaging a career-high 26.6 points, 6.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, has been especially felt.
“We haven’t had a full team all year. I don’t know, maybe one game we’ve had a full roster, maybe even not,” James told reporters. “We got some very important guys out right now, and obviously I started the year being out. Having our all-star two guard (Reaves) out and Rui’s now out, Gabe’s been out for a minute, Jaxson (Hayes) just came back. There’s been a lot of in and out, so that’s been very hard to just get a rhythm and chemistry on the floor with guys that you know you’re gonna play with every night. … But it’s still no excuse.
“We still need to go out and execute, and I think we did that tonight. … The better team won.”
LeBron James speaks on how cascading injuries to the roster has delayed the Lakers’ ability to fortify a true identity this season – and emphasized how LAL must continue to have a next man up mentality in the interim. pic.twitter.com/eWASedJXNL
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 31, 2025
It’s worth noting that Doncic went into the locker room with trainers during the third quarter on Tuesday and emerged with a wrap on his left shoulder while appearing to grimace in pain, though he did return to the game. There has been no update on his status as of Wednesday afternoon.
“We have had a lot of stops and starts,” Redick said. “And we’ve tried to — not just the staff, I’m saying, our team. The players, staff, everybody — we’ve really tried to play the right way every night and have the right intent. The flow of lineups and rotations and all that has been challenging for everybody, not just the coaches. It’s a challenge for the players.
“… I think that’s hard to figure out with this team right now.”