The Lakeshow Review

“The turnovers, fast break points and points in the paint killed us tonight.” – Jonathan Clay Redick, December 2025

Following a 23-point Christmas beatdown at the hands of the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers took the court against the Sacramento Kings in hopes of getting back on track. Thankfully, for the Lakers, they were playing the Sacramento Kings. LA won handily, 125-101, as Luka Dončić led the way with 34, while LeBron James also contributed 24 points. Nick smith Jr. scored 21 big points off the bench, as the reserves played one of their better outings thus far. This had all the makings of a get right game, as the Lakers successfully tee’d off against an inferior Kings roster, who were missing several key players in guard Zach LaVine and big man Domantas Sabonis.

Against Sacramento, LA feasted on their abysmal defense. The Kings do a poor job of defending screens. They often leave no backside help against rollers, and when they trap, as they did to Luka on several possessions, they do a terrible job at tagging the roll man, in this case Ayton. The Lakers’ offense had their way, and the team looked re-energized. They shot 53% from the floor, 39% from three-point range, and won the points-in-the-paint battle (56-50) as they also limited their turnovers, while keeping the King’s transition game at bay (something that’s been an uphill battle for the Purple & Gold recently). The Lakers drove to the rim at will, with Sacramento’s defense offering little resistance, due to their lack of communication and relatively bad execution. It was never really a contest, and the Lakers looked to be getting their groove back.

Unfortunately, the mirage of stomping on a bottom-dweller (the Kings are tied for the worst record in the Western Conference) washed off rather swiftly once they turned around to face the Detroit Pistons, who are the best team in the Eastern Conference. The three-on-twos and two-on-ones that they were able to consistently create against the hapless Kings defense were methodically wiped out by Detroit’s athletic, switchy, and well-coached defensive attack. Thus, the Lakers weren’t able to keep up offensively against the well-oiled Pistons, getting beat soundly by a 128-106 final. Consequently, as is the case with mediocre teams (and the Lakers are certainly mediocre right now), they get easily demoralized on defense once they can’t score on offense. Bad offense leads to bad defense.

As of right now, the Lakers are a defensive mess. One that gets further exposed by their tendency to stall on offense. Against the Pistons, they displayed a comedy of errors. The team’s lack of communication defensively is truly hurting their ability for solid defensive execution. LAs switching schemes are quite simply abysmal, as they often put two on the ball, leaving a roll man the open trail to the basket. This is compounded by the fact that they don’t have a true defensive anchor, and have to rely on guys like Deandre Ayton to be the last line of defense. The Pistons dropped a video-game-like 74 points in the paint, as the Lakers had no solution for taming Detroit’s consistent odd-man pressure.

Then there’s the transition defense. The Lakers simply don’t get back on defense, and the word is out. They don’t stop the ball, which is bad enough. They also don’t protect the basket. It’s a tell-tale sign of bad effort. Detroit amassed a ridiculous 31 fastbreak points, to LAs 12. You will never win a game giving up that sort of handicap. To make matters worse, the Pistons were also the hungrier and more physical team, winning the rebounding battle 37-33, while also displaying superior ball movement on offense by way of 30 team assists. They shot a blistering 63% from the court, as well as 46% from three. They completely dismantled the Lakers’ anemic defensive schemes. Luka did his best to fill the statsheet, with 30 points (on 22 shots) while also filling it with eight turnovers. LeBron, following an encouraging showing versus the Kings, was made to look rather old with 17 points (on 17 shots) to go with four assists and five turnovers. Detroit’s Cade Cunningham outclassed the field with an impressive 27 points, five rebound, 11 assist performance. Jaxson Hayes chipped in with 13 points off the bench, but it failed to offset Detroit’s effortless offensive output.

The Lakers are reeling. The absence of Austin Reaves, who is clearly the team’s bonafide no. 2, is of consequence. But ultimately, it’s the team’s lack of focus, competitive spirit and complete disregard of sound defensive principles that are currently sinking their psyching. There is seemingly no gameplan to ameliorate their defensive shortcomings, as every game offers more of the same. They can’t properly ice a screen, they have no concept of hedging (Deandre Ayton is being asked to play the most vanilla drop coverage), they don’t tag the roll man, their soft switching is a mess, and they don’t make the slightest attempt to communicate with each other, which makes it impossible to successfully defend some of the more intricate screening actions that their opponents present. As I’ve been saying, it’s a rotten cocktail of coaching and effort. Neither of which is present. Changes need to be in order, and more needs to be asked out of this current group, otherwise the team will endure a prolonged stretch of mediocre ball that will undo any sort of of cushion they’ve built for themselves following a strong start to the season. AR won’t return until around the All-Star break, and the trade dominoes usually don’t start to drop until around February. So the changes will have to come internally, and they should be mostly philosophical. JJ Redick needs to step up and get more juice out of this crop of players. Whether it’s shuffling lineups, or instilling a better gameplan, he needs to start experimenting. The roster, however unbalanced, has the pieces to succeed. It’s a matter of re-ordering them in order to find the right chemistry.

Happy New Year.

Go Lakers.