The Los Angeles Lakers are in a bit of a slump.
The Los Angeles Lakers were in the game against the Detroit Pistons, though the 128-106 final score doesn’t exactly indicate that. It was a hard-found battle that saw the Lakers eventually drop their fourth of their last five. And it was one that saw LeBron James score 17 points on his birthday alongside Luka Doncic’s 30 points and 11 assists – though Doncic also had a team-worst eight turnovers.
But Los Angeles coach JJ Redick isn’t placing all of the blame on his team, admitting that he saw the effects of officiating and struggled to match the Piston’s physicality that wasn’t getting called while LA had two late technical fouls, in part due to their protesting of the officiating. Detroit was called for 26 fouls and shot 29 free throws. The Lakers were called for 24 fouls and shot 31 free throws. But it was how and when the calls were made that clearly affected LA on the court.
Here is the full story from Lakers Roundtable writer Jack Haslett on the team struggling to find its identity at this point.
"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, per ESPN. "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."
Physicality and officiating aside, the number of turnovers committed by LA were as costly. They had 21 turnovers that resulted in 30 points for Detroit. But the physical nature and defense have been lacking as Redick experiments with different lineups to account for injuries and try to get some of those traits together on the court. That also affects consistency and the ability to find a team identity to a point.