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Lakers’ 7-game win streak ends amid sloppiness in blowout loss to Suns

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Phoenix Suns forward Ryan Dunn soars to the basket for a dunk as Lakers guard Luka Doncic, far left, forward Jake LaRavia, second from left, and forward Rui Hachimura, second from right, and Suns forward Nigel Hayes-Davis watch during the first half on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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LOS ANGELES — Maybe the Lakers’ recent success prevented them from closely inspecting their process before Monday night’s home game against the Phoenix Suns.

Maybe it was them playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and the third time in four nights, against a physical Suns team that forces opponents into mistakes. Or the quality of the Lakers’ competition increasing coming out of a soft stretch in their schedule.

A combination of those factors could have also led to the Lakers producing their least energetic performance in nearly three weeks in a 125-108 defeat that snapped their seven-game winning streak.

“Talked about it before the game to you guys and to the team: if you don’t play hard against that team, you’re getting exposed,” Coach JJ Redick said. “Simple. Multiple times in the first half, we have a numbers advantage in transition on the defensive end, and guys just run by us. We talked about matching their physicality, didn’t do that to any extent at any point in the game.

“Maybe there was brain fog from three in four nights. I don’t know. It’s a weird sort of thing. It really is. It’s like the Monstars taking over the people that you’ve grown to coach, and they’re not doing anything that they normally do. It’s weird.”

Even with Luka Doncic (38 points, 11 rebounds and five assists) delivering another strong start and recording his sixth straight double-double, the Lakers (15-5) couldn’t overcome their self-inflicted mistakes in their final game before a three-game East Coast road trip that begins Thursday in Toronto.

The Suns (13-9) scored 30 points off of the Lakers’ season-high 22 turnovers, helping Phoenix record a 28-2 advantage in fast-break scoring.

For all of his brilliant shot-making, Doncic was equally as responsible for the Lakers’ sloppy play, recording nine of the team’s turnovers.

“That was my fault,” Doncic said. “No way I can have nine turnovers in the game. In that second quarter instead of just, they’re giving the shots, instead of shooting the ball. I feel like I was trying to get [everyone] involved. But there’s no way I should have nine turnovers.”

Austin Reaves (16 points on 6-of-12 shooting) added five turnovers.

“I dribbled the ball literally out of bounds one time,” Reaves said. “I’ve done it before. I did it [on Monday] and at some point I’ll probably do it again. I was bad in that aspect, so I gotta be better.”

LeBron James, who finished with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting to extend his streak of scoring in double digits to 1,297 games, had three turnovers.

“Listen, it happens, it’s a long NBA season,” James said. “We understand that’s a very good team over there. They took us out of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to execute, and we have to learn from that.”

Phoenix was led by Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Collin Gillespie (career-high 28 points and five assists) after star guard Devin Booker (11 points in 10 minutes) was ruled out in the second quarter because of a groin injury.

Doncic scored 20 first-quarter points for a second consecutive game, and the third time in the past four, to help the Lakers keep pace with the Suns, with the score tied at 31-all entering the second.

The Lakers had their largest lead midway through the second quarter when they were ahead 41-35. The Suns closed the quarter on a 19-4 run over the last four minutes to take a 66-52 lead into halftime. The Lakers committed 10 turnovers in the second, with Phoenix scoring 14 points off the giveaways.

“We played a little bit of their game,” center Deandre Ayton said. “They were rushing us up a little bit and made us get out of rhythm, where we kept running after them in transition and gave them time to set their defense and that’s what we were playing against.”

The Suns maintained a double-digit lead for the entire second half, pushing the margin as high as 25 points (113-88) in the fourth.

Brooks scored 23 points on 11-of-16 shooting in the first half, taking the offensive lead with Booker sidelined. Gillespie added 16 of his 28 in the fourth quarter and made a career-best eight 3-pointers for Phoenix, which had lost three of its past four games.

“I think you more so just flush this one,” Reaves said. “We just didn’t play good. We didn’t play hard enough. And you don’t let it affect you going forward.”

James’ double-digit scoring streak appeared to be in jeopardy for much of Monday, with him entering the fourth with just six points.

But less than a minute after splitting a pair of free throws, the four-time league MVP knocked down a stepback 3-pointer with 6:51 left to keep his record-extending streak alive.