The Lakers lost 106-128 to the Pistons tonight on LeBron James’ 41st birthday. Luka Doncic led all scorers for the Lakers with 30 points, 11 assists, and five rebounds, but he played extremely inefficiently tonight. He went 9-of-22 from the floor (40.9%) and 3-of-11 (27.3%) from beyond the arc, but most notably also had eight turnovers.
A part of the reason for such an off-night for the Slovenian superstar seems to be the injury to his left shoulder. Near the end of the third quarter, Doncic returned to the locker room and came out with an icepack bandaged to his left shoulder.
Luka Doncic is bothered by left shoulder injury pic.twitter.com/rNsTHkgDEU
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 31, 2025
He scored all of his 30 points before he went to the locker room. After returning in the fourth quarter, he had only one rebound and two assists. Clearly, he was playing through pain, as even during the press conference (0:58 onwards), it was visible on his face that any movement of his left shoulder was causing him pain.
Luka Doncic full postgame conference, after the 106-128 home loss to the Detroit Pistons tonight.
It starts in English, then couple of questions in Spanish, and then again in English.
He seems pretty exhausted and sad, not in a mood after a horrible loss at home. pic.twitter.com/niqGMoaxgM
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 31, 2025
While we do not have any updates on this injury just yet, the birthday boy, LeBron James, also spoke to the media about looming injuries and how they have caused this Lakers roster to fail in solidifying its’ identity.
“We don’t have a full team all year. We got maybe one game with the full roster, maybe not. We’ve got very important guys out right now. I started the year being out,” said James during the locker room media scrum.
“An All-Star two-guard has been out,” James added while subtly promoting Austin Reaves to earn his first All-Star recognition this season.
“Rui is now out, Gabe’s been out, Jackson just came back, just a lot of in and out. So it’s hard to kind of get into a rhythm. The chemistry on the floor with the guys you’re going to play with every night, the guys you know are going to come in when you sub… It’s still no excuse, you still have to go out and execute,” said James in conclusion.
The Lakers have fallen to 20-11 after this loss and were without key players like Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura available tonight. With the injury scare to Doncic, the Lakers are now at risk of having a further depleted roster.
They are going to face the Grizzlies in their next two consecutive games at home on January 2 and January 4. Lakers fans are eagerly anticipating an update on Doncic’s injury heading into the new year.
