Austin Reaves 43 points: that was the answer when the Los Angeles Lakers had to play without Luka Doncic on Sunday. Reaves scored a season-high 43 as the Lakers held off the Detroit Pistons 121-116 at Little Caesars Arena, opening a four-game road trip with a win and improving to 9-2. Detroit fell to 6-3. Doncic sat out with low back tightness, and for long stretches Reaves made sure his absence never decided the game.
The Infanity TV clip above captures JJ Redick describing Reaves as an All-Star, All-NBA level player. Sunday in Detroit was the kind of night that makes that claim easy to defend.
Austin Reaves carries the load without Luka Doncic
The official box score lists Reaves at 14-for-27 from the floor, 4-for-6 from three-point range and a perfect 11-for-11 at the free-throw line in 36 minutes and 41 seconds. He added five rebounds and four assists, committed just one turnover and finished plus-21, the best mark on either team. With Doncic out, Reaves was the first option on nearly every important possession, and he kept finding his way to his spots against a physical defense.
The context matters. Doncic entered the night averaging a league-high 40.1 points per game, so the Lakers were not just missing a star; they were missing their entire offensive structure. Reaves did not try to imitate Doncic’s style. He attacked mismatches, lived in the midrange with difficult fadeaway jumpers, and turned contact into free throws. The final dagger came with 46 seconds remaining, when he buried a stepback three that pushed the lead back to eight and silenced a crowd that had spent most of the second half believing a comeback was coming.
This was not a one-off. Reaves has been steady all season, and Redick has praised his consistency since the opening week. What Sunday added was proof that he can sustain elite volume for a full game when the offense runs entirely through him.
A 38-14 first quarter and a 26-point lead
The Lakers could not have started better. They won the first quarter 38-14, and the lead reached 26 early in the second. Jarred Vanderbilt was a major part of that burst, grabbing six rebounds in less than six minutes during the opening period. He finished with 10 rebounds in 13 minutes and 41 seconds, including eight on the defensive glass, while scoring only two points. That is exactly the role Vanderbilt fills best: energy, length and extra possessions.
The official box shows Detroit never led. There were zero lead changes, the Pistons’ biggest lead was zero, and the game was tied only twice. Even so, a 26-point cushion nearly proved insufficient.
Daniss Jenkins and Kevin Huerter nearly flipped the script
Detroit’s bench refused to go away. Daniss Jenkins scored a career-high 31 points on 9-for-17 shooting, including 8-for-15 from three, and Kevin Huerter added 24 on 9-for-14 shooting. Together, the two reserves combined for 55 points. Jenkins scored much of his total before halftime and hit a three-pointer at the buzzer that cut the Lakers’ lead to 13 at the break, 61-48.
That shot changed the energy in the building. In the third quarter, Detroit ran off 11 straight points to get within three with just over a minute left in the period. The Lakers committed four turnovers during that drought, including a shot-clock violation coming out of a timeout. Overall, the Pistons made 19 three-pointers to the Lakers’ 11, which is the kind of gap that usually decides a game.
Cade Cunningham, by contrast, had a quieter night than usual. He finished with 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting, eight assists and four turnovers, and did not score his first points until early in the third quarter. Detroit was also without center Jalen Duren, who missed the game with a right hamstring strain, and Isaiah Joe, who was out with a right hip contusion.
Walker Kessler, Ziaire Williams and Collin Sexton supply the support
Reaves had help. Walker Kessler posted 12 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, with seven of those rebounds coming on the offensive glass. His biggest play came with 2 minutes and 15 seconds remaining, when he converted a putback three-point play that restored a seven-point lead and pushed him into double figures. It was his fifth double-double in six games.
Ziaire Williams scored 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting and made four of his eight three-point attempts. Collin Sexton, handling the ball as the second creator with Doncic out, also scored 17 on 5-for-10 shooting and made seven of eight free throws. Quentin Grimes added 12 points and four assists, Sandro Mamukelashvili scored seven, and Matisse Thybulle produced four steals in 28 minutes despite scoring only four points.
How the Lakers won the possession math
The three-point column favored Detroit, but the Lakers won in other places. They outscored the Pistons 58-46 in the paint and made 26 of 33 free throws, while Detroit went 13-for-20 at the line. Los Angeles shot 50 percent from the field to Detroit’s 44.7 percent, and it needed 10 fewer field-goal attempts to get there. The Lakers also edged the rebounding battle 44-43 and won second-chance points 19-18.
The concern is ball security. The Lakers finished with 16 turnovers that Detroit turned into 21 points, and most of the damage came after halftime. Against a team with Duren and Joe available, that kind of second-half sloppiness could easily turn a 26-point lead into a loss.
Another win without Doncic
This is the second time this season the Lakers have won without Doncic. They also beat the Clippers on Oct. 28 while he was sidelined with back tightness. That matters for a team that has relied heavily on his historic scoring start, including his 53-point night against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. Redick has said he does not expect the back issue to be a significant problem over the course of the season, but no status for the next game is confirmed here.
The win also extends the Lakers’ winning streak to five games. Their depth looked real on Sunday: all 10 Lakers who played scored, Vanderbilt and Kessler controlled the glass for long stretches, and Thybulle’s defense created extra opportunities.
What comes next for the Los Angeles Lakers
Sunday was the front end of a back-to-back. The Lakers were next at the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, with later games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns also on the week’s schedule. Whether Doncic would return in Atlanta was the immediate follow-up question after Detroit. The second is whether the Lakers can clean up the turnovers that nearly erased a 26-point lead. For one night in Detroit, though, the story was simple: Austin Reaves scored 43 points, hit the biggest shot of the game, and showed exactly why Redick talks about him the way he does.
For more Lakers coverage, catch up on the Lakers’ recent run against Portland and keep watching the Infanity TV clip above for Redick’s full take on Reaves.
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