Dave McMenaminDec 31, 2025, 02:59 AM ET
- Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.
LOS ANGELES — After the Detroit Pistons turned what had been a tight game for most of Tuesday night into a 128-106 rout, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick admitted the officiating affected his team.
“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 said. “There’s frustration there, for sure. But I mean, again, I said it even here, we said it this morning: They’re going to foul every possession. It’s just, you got to play through it.”
Indeed, before the game, in which the Pistons forced 21 turnovers resulting in 30 points, Redick predicted their approach.
“They’re going to foul on every possession, probably three or four times,” Redick said during his pregame remarks to reporters. “And that’s not a knock, I’m not saying it in a negative way, but they’re going to foul three or four times on every possession. [And the officials are] not going to call a foul on every possession.”
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Detroit was called for 26 fouls, and L.A. shot 31 free throws. The Lakers were called for 24 fouls, and the Pistons shot 29 free throws.
Luka Doncic, who had a team-worst eight turnovers, said L.A. needed to up its aggression because of how the game was being officiated.
“We’ve got to definitely match their physicality,” Doncic said. “That’s the whole point. We got to match how they play. You saw the refs let it go, so we should play [with] physicality, for sure.”
The Pistons certainly let their presence be known in L.A. to finish out their five-game road trip. Lakers guard Marcus Smart took a shot to the face in the first quarter by Pistons forward Duncan Robinson and was called for a technical foul for arguing with the referee because it was not reviewed to see whether it was a flagrant foul.
In the second quarter, Lakers forward Jake LaRavia took an elbow to the side of the head from Detroit center Jalen Duren that was initially called a common foul and then upgraded to a Flagrant 1 upon review.
And in the third quarter, Doncic was called for a technical foul for “flailing” after his arm hit Detroit’s Ronald Holland II in the face when the two got tangled up.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Pistons’ lead insurmountable, Smart stood up from his seat at the end of the bench to yell at an official for what he perceived to be continued missed calls.
The loss dropped L.A. to 20-11 — with all 11 of those losses coming by double digits, and six by 20 or more.
LeBron James, who scored 17 points on 6-for-17 shooting with four assists and five turnovers on his 41st birthday, did not offer his opinion on the officials.
“It’s not my lane to talk about how it was officiated or not,” he said.
He did speak about the overall state of the Lakers, however, as they closed out 2025 with their fourth loss in their past five games.
“We haven’t had a full team all year,” James said. “We got some very important guys out right now. And obviously I started the year being out. And having our All-Star, 2-guard [Austin Reaves] out, and Rui [Hachimura] is now out. And Gabe [Vincent has] been out for a minute. Jaxson [Hayes] just came back. There’s been a lot of in and out. So that’s very hard to get a rhythm of chemistry on the floor with guys that you know you’re going to play with every night. …
“But still no excuse. We still got to go out and execute. … The better team tonight won.”