The Los Angeles Lakers extended one of the most talked-about winning streaks of the 2026 season with a road win over the Detroit Pistons, and the post-game conversation around the team settled on the same few threads: health, mental toughness and a growing belief that this version of the roster, given enough games together, is genuinely very good.
Head coach JJ Redick opened by describing the game itself as evidence of a habit the Lakers have been building for weeks — the ability to slip into trouble without panicking out of their identity.
"I talked about before the game the growth we've had with being able to bend but not break, and tonight was another example of that," Redick said. "We were really sharp and good defensively for three quarters. Second quarter not so much."
The subtext of the night was Marcus Smart's absence, which Redick returned to without prompting. Without the sharpness that Smart normally provides at the point of attack, the Lakers absorbed more dribble penetration than they wanted and had to recalibrate inside the game.
"It is remarkable to me — and this is again not an excuse, but our winning streak has also coincided with us being healthy," Redick said. "You go watch — I rewatched the first Detroit game, and it's like, 'Oh, this guy's out. This guy's out. This guy's out tonight.' Smart and Ruie are out. Not having Smart tonight killed us."
Redick was unambiguous when asked to characterise what his team actually is.
"We're a good basketball team," he said. "I believe that we're a good basketball team. I thought we could be a good basketball team the entire season. We saw flashes of it. We saw short stretches of it. But we're a good basketball team."
LeBron James, whose 41-year-old regular-season grind has become its own slow-burn storyline, framed the win as another referendum on the group's resilience rather than a statement.
"Just our mental toughness — through all, like you said, a couple of games where we got down, a couple of games where we got up, teams made a run, took leads," James said. "We were able to stay resilient and come back."
Asked about the goaltending ruling that went against Detroit late, James was terse.
"He said it was going down," James said.
James turned the conversation forward to the Lakers' next stop, a meeting with an Indiana Pacers team whose pace has traditionally given the Lakers trouble.
"They play extremely hard, extremely fast, and they're super well coached," James said. "So we've got to be ready for that. It's the last game of the road trip. I know everybody's trying to get home, but we've got business to take care of. So we'll be ready."
Austin Reaves, who had his own tough night early but helped steady the Lakers through the middle stretches, acknowledged the game mirrored the emotional shape of the road trip itself. The Lakers had fallen behind by 16 or 18 before climbing back into a two-point game entering the fourth.
"We went down what, 16, 18 in the third and battled our way back," Reaves said. "I think it was a two-point game going into the fourth. We did some really good things and there were some things we needed to clean up. But it's a long trip, and I like the way we competed."
Reaves also echoed Redick on Smart's absence.
"Marcus is a huge culture guy for us. The way he plays — unselfish, guards every team's best player — that's what he does," Reaves said. "When you don't have that, it sucks, but it's next-man-up mentality."
Another unnamed Lakers player closed out the night by tipping his cap to the opposition, a pointed gesture given Detroit's position in the Eastern Conference.
"They're the number one team in the East, and they've got a really good team even with their All-NBA player being out," the Lakers player said. "So give a lot of credit to them. We gave ourselves a chance. That's all you can ask for."
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/lakers-pistons-winning-streak-redick-lebron-reaves-smart-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
