Lakers player grades: L.A.'s winning streak ends in Detroit

The Los Angeles Lakers looked to extend their winning streak to 10 games on Monday when they visited the Detroit Pistons on Monday. One might have thought they had a great shot of winning yet again with Pistons superstar Cade Cunningham out due to a collapsed lung, even though they were without veteran guard Marcus Smart and reserve forward Rui Hachimura. Instead, this game would turn into a grind for the Purple and Gold.

After the Lakers took a seven-point lead late in the first quarter, Detroit turned up its defense, as well as its offense, and outscored the Lakers 42-25 in the second quarter. Los Angeles trailed by as many as 16 points before fighting back and making things competitive throughout the fourth quarter, but it had trouble manufacturing points on a consistent basis. After tying the score at 91, it fell behind 105-98 with 4:22 left.

Luke Kennard's three free throws knotted the score at 105-all with 2:39 to go, and it looked like perhaps the Lakers were poised to come up with yet another victory. But with nine seconds left, they found themselves down 113-110, and Luka Doncic was forced into throwing up a highly contested rainbow 3-pointer that didn't come close to going through the hoop. Just like that, the Lakers' winning streak was history.

They went just 8-of-28 from 3-point range, and while they committed only 13 turnovers, eight of them came in the fourth quarter. Detroit, meanwhile, shot 42. 3% from downtown and was able to create better looks from long distance than L.