The Detroit Pistons handed the Los Angeles Lakers a 113-110 loss on Monday night, snapping a nine-game winning streak that had been the longest run of form LA had strung together since 2020. The Pistons did it without their best player, Cade Cunningham, who has been sidelined for three straight games with a collapsed lung, and still found a way to close it out.
The story of the night was Daniss Jenkins, the second-year guard out of St. John's who started for Cunningham and delivered a career-high 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting with eight assists. In the final 34 seconds, with the Lakers threatening to steal it, Jenkins made six of Detroit's last seven points, including a baseline mid-range with 25 seconds left, followed by two free throws with nine seconds on the clock that sealed the 113-110 final.
Luka Dončić led the Lakers with 32 points, and Austin Reaves added 24, but the game's defining sequence was the shot Luka didn't get. On the final inbounds play, Jalen Duren switched onto Dončić after a screen and locked him up on the left wing. Tobias Harris deflected LeBron's inbound pass to Maxi Kleber, Dončić tracked it down anyway, and fired an off-balance airball at the buzzer. LeBron, who went scoreless in the first half but finished with 12 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds, gave credit where it was due: "They're the No. 1 team in the East," James said. "Even without their All-NBA player being out."
JJ Redick was pointed in his postgame read. The roster was depleted, Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura were both out, and the nine-game streak had coincided almost exactly with the Lakers being healthy. "It is remarkable to me, not an excuse, that our winning streak has coincided with us being healthy," Redick said. Detroit's defensive rating of 108.9 is second in the NBA, and the Pistons are now 52-19 on the season — the best record in the Eastern Conference. The Lakers, sitting at 46-26, head to Indiana on Wednesday.
Detroit is the most interesting story in the NBA right now. They are first in the East, winning fourth-straight games in a stretch where their MVP candidate is out with a collapsed lung, and the answer is a second-year guard nobody outside of the Bronx was talking about two weeks ago. The young Pistons have all the hallmarks of a real contender: depth, defense, and the ability to elevate role players when it counts.
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