Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Turnovers Kill Lakers In 128-106 Loss to Detroit. Red Flags Heading Into 2026...

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

The Kings on Sunday provided a brief respite from their troubles, but the Lakers were neck deep in them again on Tuesday, with the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons in town. The Lakers seemed to be outplayed in the first half, with the Pistons shooting 68%, Cade Cunningham shooting 9-13, and the Lakers turning the ball over 12 times, yet the purple and gold entered the break down by five. They managed to keep it close in the third, even managing to pull even, despite many, many moments where it felt like Detroit would pull away. But in the fourth quarter, the dam finally broke. An eight point deficit became 17 by the six minute mark, and eventually cracked 20. The Lakers got incredibly loose with the ball, a combination of carelessness and an attempt to force the action to find offense, and Detroit capitalized on all of it. Offense was just incredibly hard to come by. Luka Dončić and LeBron James were both under 50% for the night. LeBron had more turnovers than dimes, and Luka had eight of his own. Deandre Ayton was the only other starter in double figures, but he also only had two rebounds and was broadly a non-factor in the game. Jarred Vanderbilt had eight points in the first half, none in the second. Nick Smith couldn't follow his strong Sunday with a decent Tuesday, missing all but one of his field goal attempts. The Lakers have some winnable games on the slate, at least in theory, but the W's aren't going to come unless they can clean up the offense.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Lakers lose to Pistons thanks to self-inflicted wounds.  SEGMENT 2: The Lakers have some issues scoring.  SEGMENT 3: What happens going forward?  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Turnovers kill the Lakers again and another double-digit 20-point loss this time to the Pistons. How are the Lakers going to fix what ails them as they enter the new year? You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends. no matter how you get the podcast, whether you're a subscriber to the YouTube channel over 37,000 strong and Lockdown Lakers on YouTube,

perhaps you get it on Apple, perhaps you get it through Spotify. No matter how you do it, you're part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one, the Sports Podcast Network, in this or any other known universe. I'm Brian Kemenisky. With Andy Kemenisky, you've covered the Lakers for a very long time,

nearly 20 years for a variety of outlets, including ESPN and the athletic. this Andy, this game against the Detroit Pistons, which turned into a blowout loss, 128, 106. It wasn't that the entire time. The Lakers were in this game and even tied it up in the third quarter. But when Detroit took control, it really, to me, just put all of the problems that the Lakers currently have without Austin. Austin Reeves, no Rui Hachamura in this game, and just the general roster construction. It just, it was, it made all of it blindingly obvious what the problems are with this team.

Again, 128, 106, the final score, an ugly way to end 2025 for the Lakers. First of all, shout out to the Lakers. They remain undefeated for losing by double digits. They are now 11 for 11. six of those by more than 20 Andy right and I I guarantee they're the only team in the league that holds this particular record I don't remember the last time this has happened for any team going this long where they only lose by double digits so I guess in that sense in a season that's had wild fluctuations in terms of who's been available the way they've tried to play it all sorts of uncontrollables this is the one area where they've been like rock solid consistent. It does make it so like if they're, you know, eight, nine minutes left in the game

and they're not down by 14, you can actually feel pretty comfortable. I mean, it is insane that they are undefeated for double digit losses and undefeated in clutch time. What a time to be alive, man. Just a weird effing team. But this was a game that given who was missing for the Lakers, the fact that Detroit is a very good.

good team to begin with. They are a better team, all evidence has shown, than the Lakers anyway. And they are as if designed in a lab to give the Lakers, even at full strength, much less this version problems. And I will say in the locked on podcast network top 100 NBA players project that we and all the other hosts participated in, I had Cade Cunningham at number 10. So, In other words, 10th best player in the league, which was higher than the consensus for the network. And as it turns out, I may very well have had him too low. Like that dude is a problem. But the thing that was frustrating for me watching this game, it's not that the Lakers lost

because there was so much set up for them to lose, including Detroit is better than them and coming off a difficult, frustrating road trip that you knew damn sure they were going to try to turn this thing around. The problem for me was the things that were controllable for the Lakers that would have at least given themselves the best possibility to try to, if not pull the upset, at least keep it competitive, wire to wire.

They did a bad job controlling the controllables. Like they were down 70 to 65 at the half, despite having 12 turnovers at the half where they gave up 20 points off turnovers. Detroit had 46 points in the paint. The Lakers had already missed five free throws to be down just five. Detroit went into the half shooting over 68%. Right.

Like to be down just five under those circumstances, I think, spoke well, and I think it should be pointed out, to how hard the Lakers were trying in this game. The effort was there. Like the desire to win this thing was there. But there were so many avoidable mistakes that they made in this game that again, I'm not saying the Lakers should have won because they were not set up to. but they were, they could have been in a position to play better in a loss. And that was frustrating to watch.

It was. And I want to let people know that today's episodes brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NBA. For $20 off your first purchase, to your point, Andy, some of the things that you were referencing here, the Lakers, you mentioned, the 12 turnovers in the first half, they finished with 20. and the big run that Detroit made in the fourth quarter to put the game away was fueled almost entirely by Lakers turnovers. We know four or five defensions in a row where the Lakers gave the ball up to Detroit. LeBron called them pick sixes, just too many easy opportunities for the Pistons and too many trips for the Lakers where they're simply not getting a shot.

It's not just that Detroit gets the ball or even gets an easy basket. it's that the Lakers also don't get an opportunity to score on those possessions. So there's that. They made it to the line 31 times. They missed 10 of those shots. So 21 of 31 from the free throw line, that is not going to get it done, 68%. And then, you know, you start getting into other things. They shot 45% from the field.

They were 28% from three point range. They're just that. that's those numbers I was in I and a lot of the threes were poorly selected three was like some of them were some of them weren't leuka had a couple loose ones um you know they ran on had a couple loose ones right they ran into some late clock threes i think they were they also ran in some early clock threes sure i just a lot of really early clock there were no some of those but i i i'm trying to parse every single three that they took but i'm just saying like you know they had some threes that were taken under, you know, late clock to rest.

They had some threes, I think, that came from feeling like you have to try to trade three for two because Detroit was in the paint the entire game. And the Lakers, you know, couldn't get into the, into the paint to save their lives. So I think they felt like they, you know, often felt like they needed to somehow sort of trade up and generate offense quickly. But it becomes a catch 22 really. I'm not condoning it. I know, but I just want to explain the catch 22. When they put up those type of threes that are not good threes,

particularly on a night where Luca and LeBron, neither one of them is shooting them well. They were combined six of 21 from behind the arc. Those often lead to the type of runouts that give Detroit advantage and help them live in the paint. Like you do have to be more selective with it. You just do. You're not going to find anybody who harps on the influence of offense on your defense more than me.

And, you know, but it gets to what you were saying before. Like the, the Lakers came into this game needing to, needing to display an enormous amount of discipline to have a chance to win. like discipline in their execution, discipline in their shot selection, discipline in their passing, and all these other things. That runs into problems, though, because you also have to figure out or playing against the team that's better than us that has way more offensive firepower than we do, that can put more ball pressure on than we can, can move the ball better than we. So you also feel, I think, compelled to take chances.

And you saw, you know, LeBron and Luca had 13 turnovers between. them at least half of those were like watching like brett farv on his bad days or stafford against the um the the the the the the the falcons on monday night football trying to put balls into windows that are just too small where you see something instantly where you're trying to create an opportunity and the window just isn't there and you know i know those two particularly those two feel like they can get a pass into the tiniest cracks, but they just weren't there. And I, this team without Austin Reeves and without Rui, who didn't play, just suffers from everything.

Like they don't, we'll talk about this in the next segment. Like what can they, you know, because this gets to what they can do going forward. They, they don't have a superpower with this. Like they're not a good shooting team right now. They're not a great shooting team, period. But without Rui and Austin, that takes away a big chunk of their outage game. Sure. They're also, though, but if you're not going to be able to shoot the ball, shoot the three,

you've got to be able to get the free throw line. The Lakers have been a team that gets to the line a lot. But without Austin there, not only did they lose Austin's free throws that nobody else can generate. Austin helps generate free throws for LeBron. LeBron can't get to the line as much on his own as he used to. You're basically down to Luca as a guy who can kind of get himself to the line with frequency. That's not going to get it done. So we'll talk a little bit more about this and some other stuff that went wrong over the course of Tuesday night's game next.

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Andy, when you start to break this stuff down, my big concern coming into this game, obviously the Lakers defense has been atrocious over the last couple of weeks, Kings game notwithstanding. Kings, by the way, got hammered again on Tuesday this time by the Clippers. I was really curious

how they were going to generate enough offense to stay in this game. And I kept looking at, like, if you just watched a game without being able to see the score in the first half, I think your general impression of the game would have been the Pistons were up by like 15. And yet the Lakers were in, you're still in the game. And I was like, okay, well, you know, maybe Detroit cools off a little bit. Maybe the Lakers catch fire a little bit.

Obviously, neither of those things happened. LeBron, who was very hot early as he celebrated his 41st birthday, got very cold late. You know, old people as the night goes on, it tends to get tougher to do stuff. Like the Lakers cooled off. They could like just, and then what seemed like it was going to be full from the 3 p.m. buffet that he went to. He'll still be up at 4 in the morning because that's also what old people do. pulling up those socks, those vein socks.

That's so un-cool. I'm telling you, man, you get to a certain age. Putting on socks is no joke. Also, too, really quick, as long as we're talking about LeBron's birthday and this game was played on his 41st birthday, Bleacher Report tweeted out this picture of, I'm guessing LeBron is anywhere from like five to seven, eight years old or whatever.

Strong turtleneck game for young LeBron Ramon, James. That is fantastic. I mean, cute as hell, but look at that turtleneck, man. That is awesome. Adorable little elephant. I mean, but it's like, it's got an adorable little elephant stuffed animal, but he's also wearing this turtleneck and it almost looks like a smoking jacket. Like, LeBron looks cool as hell in this photo. Cool then, cool now. Yeah, so I mean, like he, he cooled off significantly. And there's just, you know, DeAndre Aiton was invisible. Basically in this game, he was the only other Laker in double figures, but he also only had two rebounds.

This is in part, the two rebounds, I will say, to be fair to Andre, are in part because Detroit never missed. So I think there were only about eight rebounds available, period for the Lakers to get. Jake Laravia was, to his credit, extremely active, especially in the first half. he was doing all kinds of stuff and disrupting things and creating opportunities for the Lakers get the ball back. As was Vando. They were all trying. But like, you know, Jake had nine points. And Marcus Smart didn't have a bucket until I think the end of the third.

Was it the fourth? A little floater. His only field goal was a little floater. I guess it was in the fourth. Yeah, you're right. Jared Vanderbilt had eight points in the first half. He had eight points at the end of the game. He hit his two corner threes, man.

He did. He's the only guy on this team who should have a green light from behind the arc. Except for Dalton Connect. Like Dalton Connect, we were both thinking the same thing at the same time. You know, Connect finishes with 13 points, you know, I'm sorry, 10 points in four minutes of play. He is the Michael Jordan of garbage time. Like every garbage time is Dalton Connect's flu game. Yeah.

Like, he is unreal. You put him in a game that's inside eight points and he can't do anything. No. But if it's like 12, 15. In either direction. Doesn't matter. You know, I don't want to make this game about Dalton Connect, but part of the problem, it wasn't.

Part of, but part of the problem that the Lakers have. Part of the problem the Lakers have is actually related to the fact that Connect sucks. Like, as a, you know, is, has not panned out as a professional. Like he is supposed to be one of these guys who can solve some of their shooting problems. He is supposed to be there, Sam Merrill, their, you know, Cam Spencer, they, you know, these guys that teams are starting to, you know, find that can, you know, just really drill threes, spread offenses and do all this stuff. and he's so ineffective in meaningful minutes that it hamperes this roster. And I think the reason he's able to go out and score 10 points in four minutes of garbage time is because all the rules go away in garbage time.

It's, you know, he can just hoop, which is what he likes to do. He's a hooper. And so, you know, that's an issue. I there is a this team was top heavy to begin with and when you take away an All-Star and Reeves it you know exposes some of the

you know LeBron's not being you know capital all caps LeBron anymore and then you take away Rui who is their only shooter that with any kind of reliability I am Luca to be honest has not ever since he came back from Slovenia. I'm not going to say he's been bad because that's not true,

but he has not been as good as he was pre-Slovenia. No, he was Reeves with remarkable efficiency. At all. No, he wasn't. Reeves with remarkable efficiency, Luca with tons of efficiency early in the year, were helping carry the Lakers through and covering some of their flaws. So, yeah, I mean, I, it's, Are you blaming Luca's child?

No. I'm not blaming it. Is it that little tiny baby's fault? Is that what you're saying? No, I mean, it could be many things. It could be jet lag. It could be Luke. I don't know what the issue is.

I mean, but at the same time. Trying it awfully hard not to blame that baby. Well, now that I think about it, though, the truth is I don't know enough to rule out the baby. I mean, it might actually be the baby's fault. I don't feel, you know, I mean, we haven't covered Luca for a long time. We certainly haven't gotten to know him well or have a lot of sourcing within Team Luca. The truth is the problem might be the baby. I just can't say it one way or the other.

The baby is telling Luca to take some of those. No, it's not that. That would be ridiculous. I'm just saying the baby's causing. The baby is causing problems because the baby's a baby and doesn't know any better. I'm not going to say the baby is giving Luca bad advice. a baby. All I'm saying is they need to put that baby somewhere else until the end of the season.

That's all Andy's saying. This is one of those things where I look at this game. And for about three quarters of the game, I was actually thinking to myself, this makes me feel at least slightly better about the team than actually the Kings game did. like you know for a little while i was like you know what because this is a you know Detroit's a better team uh the lakers are figuring out ways to stay in in it they were doing all this other stuff like the king's game was a a needed victory but didn't show much like the lakers had to work to stay in this game and they did they did and when they didn't turn the ball

over constantly. And when they attempted to more patiently run an offense, they, like, they actually, for it's hard, it was hard to tell given that like in the first half Detroit had 70 points. The Lakers actually did a decent job disrupting Detroit's offense when they weren't trying to cover for their own mistakes. But they were often disruptive. They were often working. like Detroit had almost 20 turnovers themselves. Like I'm not going to say the Lakers defense was great in this because that's not the truth. But they were working a lot.

Their half court defense was, I don't want to say, it wasn't good, but it wasn't the problem. Wasn't the problem. I think that's a really good way of putting it. That wasn't the problem. most of their defensive problems, I think, were really tied in one way or another to their offense. And after the break, I want to kind of get into like what can be done, if anything, and look a little bit at what's coming for the Lakers because they've got some games that are going to be very tough to win,

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Just keeping, you know, coming to the show, however you've been doing it for all this time and nothing changes for you. Speaking of changes, Andy, are there any really that is frustrating as this sounds? Is there really any lever here that while these guys out that you think JJ Reddick can pull to help with this? it's look it's going to be tough i mean let's hope that they don't end up more injury prone i mean hopefully ruy will be back within a week that's what j jay said was the hope that he'll be back relatively quickly um and hopefully it doesn't turn into he's gone for a week with a calf strain and then it becomes like austin where that week turns into a game and a half and then a month six weeks out.

But assuming Rui is back in relatively expected time, I've given up on trying to predict when Gabe Vincent's going to be back, but I'm assuming unless he truly is the next. We're entering Kendrick Nunn territory. Well, I was going to say he truly is Kendrick Nunn 2.0 right down to the last team he played for before he joined the Lakers and kept getting hurt. Please, just no more Miami Heat. I think a lot of this is going to be, and this might sound reductive and stupid, but I think it's actually the truth. They are going to have to execute to the absolute best of their ability.

They have to be disciplined. They have to not try to get leads back in a hurry. Like they have to, to the best of their ability, outsmart and out. out execute some of the teams are going to play because they lack athleticism at full strength, much less this version right now. It doesn't help that Luca was dealing with, it seemed like, some type of shoulder thing during the game. I don't know if it was like a groin or lower leg or something.

There was a collision that he had that had him shook up as well. you know, there's been a couple times over the last few games that LeBron has landed and you've seen him wince a little bit. Like, they're going to be at athletic and speed disadvantages on their best day. Because their star players are not hyper athletic guys. Aside from LeBron at full speed on the brick. Right. And look, even when Austin eventually comes back, he is below NBA average for athleticism. Like that's the way this team is set up. It's one of the things that I've said needs to drastically change with this team.

I've talked about that a lot. But this is where they are for the, and even if they look to make trades, they only have so many, they only have so many chips that they can cash in along that front. So they are going to have to try to avoid putting themselves in bad positions as much as possible. Like I talked about this a lot last year for as much as DeAngelo Russell was underperforming

as a player in the half season before they eventually traded him for DFS. The reason that DLO's advanced metrics, no matter which ones you looked at, were good and some of the best on the team, was he didn't turn the ball over. And he avoided putting the Lakers in transition defensively. where they're absolutely awful. And this is just they, and this comes through not turning the ball over. It comes through better shot selection.

Yeah. It comes through controlling the controllables to the best of their abilities because they can't make themselves more athletic. They can't make themselves faster. Like that's not possible. Yeah. And, you know, if you are, the Lakers, when they've been at their best over the last couple of seasons,

They've been a high turnover team. There's no question. But they've also had, you know, they had a stretch last year where they started to shoot the ball actually pretty well. So they become a decent outside shooting team. And they've always been a team that can get to the free throw line. So, you know, you can get away with too many turnovers if you are living at the line. You can get away with turnovers if you are a good three-point shooting team. If you're a bad three-point shooting team, you can compensate by not turning the ball over a lot and get in the

the free throw line. Like a bit what you can't get to a team by the way like the pistons that a is perfectly fine putting players at the line. They're like they're okay with it. And B, they had a lot of guys in foul trouble. And I don't, this is part of what frankly pissed me off about the three point selection.

It's like you have an opportunity to actually go at these guys more and you're actually bailing them out with some of these shots. Yeah, the problem, and I agree with you. The problem. that they have to some degree is that aside from Luca, without AR, they don't have a lot of guys who individually can put pressure on teams in like force files in that way. And so, you know, Detroit certainly wasn't scared, I think, of the Lakers ability to, you know, turn a corner to put

the ball on the floor and he still might get to the line, though. I mean, the way this game was getting called. I don't think they were worried about that in terms of how they were defending. Like if they needed to back off a little bit from the physicality to stay in the game, I think they felt like they could do that a little bit and not give up anything. Detroit doesn't foul, at least my, I mean, I've watched them play a few times this year, not every game. I think a lot of what they do in terms of their high foul rate is identity based in terms of being really, really physical. They're not doing that because they can't defend people. No, I know.

I'm saying, but so what I'm saying is if particularly against a team like the Lakers that don't put a lot of one-on-one pressure, A, like you say, you're going to have to scheme and execute and counter your way to creating those kinds of opportunities to get a team kind of wrong-footed where they really need to foul you because to prevent a basket. but also, you know, the pistons can back off a little bit from the physicality, keep themselves in the game and aren't going to be punished for it. That's fine, but I mean, they lead the league in opponent or they're the worst in the league in terms of opponent free throw attempts. I understand that. But I'm saying, I think they're capable of, you know, when they, you know, the Lakers just aren't very well equipped right now to make a team,

pay for that. I just want to mention something really quick before we go. The next, you know, a few, you know, week or two, we'll call it, of the games the Lakers play are going to be really fascinating because this is sort of the team that they have, hopefully Rui's back, you know, sometime by the end of next week or something like that. But AR is obviously going to be out for a while. And so the Lakers have a big swing, a big variety in their games.

They have two home games, this is very rare, back-to-back home games against the Grizzlies on Friday and Sunday. At the very least, you've got to split that. You've got a game against the Pelicans a week from Tuesday, you know, a week from tonight, if you're watching post game. That is a must win because they turn around on Wednesday, second. night of a back-to-back and they're in San Antonio. Then they play the Bucks, who have gotten a little bit better with Yannis back. Then you got the Kings.

And so you understand what I'm saying. Like these games against the Kings, the Hornets are going to be visiting in, you know, in a couple weeks to staple, to crypto.com. You've got two against the Grizzlies. Those games are must-wins.

Because that's where you're going to be able to find victories over this stretch of games. And, you know, if they're going to stay afloat kind of and kind of get through this bad stretch, while they hopefully figure some stuff, like they can't give away those games. Because I just don't think you can go in to expect to beat San Antonio,

for example, on the second night of a back-to-back. Last thing I want to say really quick, and we can obviously talk about this more, get closer to the deadline over the course of the season, whatever. but for all the talk about, you know, would you use the first round pick to trade for X player? Or, well, should you preserve it so you can have three around the draft to make some big deal?

A game like the Pistons is against a team like the Pistons that is so young and so deep with youth. You know, we just saw this with San Antonio. The Lakers are going to have to start considering more the insane idea. of actually using a draft pick on a player that they develop because it is getting harder in this league to keep up with the Joneses, particularly with how fast and athletic this league has become when you are constantly cutting yourself off.

Are you allowed to do that? Apparently you are. I looked into it. You are. Yeah, Lucas daughterful. I just assume that you weren't allowed to do it. But I'm just saying it's something, because whenever the Lakers and first round picks are talked about, it is primarily through the prism of who are the Lakers going to trade them for?

Or, you know, whenever they have a, you know, the rare time they have a first, you know, like a first round draft pick on their team or whatever, it's always through the prism of who are they eventually going to trade that guy for. Right. They need to start thinking at least a little bit more flexibly about developing some of these players because it's very hard to try to build teams, especially in this new CBA, the way the Lakers often look to. We'll obviously spend a lot of time as the deadline gets a little bit closer talking about that and what the Lakers can do, what might be out there. It's going to be a very, I'm curious to see what the landscape looks like, how many buyers there are, how many sellers there are.

There are a lot of teams that I think, you know, like a team like Utah, I think a lot of teams, a lot of team may be expected to be big sellers. I don't think they're going to be buyers, but I don't necessarily think, you know, you're going to see a big Lori Markin and trade or something like that. So who's out there and who's available. there will be many, many bad offers for the Lakers to take advantage of what could be a more desperate situation as the winter goes along. We'll see what they do. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube, Andy, is where you can go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers. I hope everyone, and Andy hopes, we both hope that everyone out there has a great, great New Year's. Be safe, be smart on New Year's.

We will see everyone in 2026.