DETROIT- WhatWhat will it mean for the Los Angeles Lakers if Anthony Davis misses time with a foot injury?

LeBron James, sitting in front of his locker after another disheartening loss to the Lakers, declined the question after the game.

“I don’t play the ‘if’ game,” James said. ‘We’ll go by what AD says and see how he feels in the coming days, and we’ll go from there. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know (the impact) whether AD is in or out. Come on.”

For much of the Lakers’ 115-103 loss to the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Monday, the biggest concern was that their 25th-ranked defense was being illuminated by the Pistons’ perimeter scorers. But then Davis hurt his left foot with 4:46 left in the game after planting a pass from James before scoring inside.

Twenty seconds later, the Lakers called a timeout and Davis fell to the ground in pain. He needed D’Angelo Russell and his trainer, Jon Ishop, to help him get back on his feet. Davis walked gingerly to the basket post and stretched before stumbling toward the group. He played the rest of the game, including scoring an alley-oop lay-in, but grimaced and limped the rest of the way. He finished with 37 points and nine rebounds in 39 minutes.

The loss dropped the Lakers to 4-3 overall and 1-3 on their five-game road trip. Now Los Angeles could be without its best player Wednesday in Memphis — and possibly longer.

“I don’t know,” Davis said when asked if he would miss the time. “I mean, I’ll talk to my trainer and find out exactly what’s going on. To be honest, I’ve been managing it since this summer, and my goal for every match is to be on the ground. And I just landed where I died. So we’re going to find out.”

The impact of Davis’ potential absence is clear: the Lakers’ front line would be decimated. Their already porous defenses would leak even worse. And their sixth-ranked offense would take a step back after losing the league’s leading scorer and their most-used player.

Los Angeles is short on bodies: Jaxson Hayes is currently the only backup center available. (The NBA has reopened an investigation into Hayes’ 2021 domestic violence incident after a video recently surfaced from TMZ. Hayes said Monday that “me and my team are working to work with the league on all of that. I have no other comments on that at this time.)

Christian Wood remains out after offseason knee surgery. Two-time great Christian Koloko is with the South Bay Lakers in the G League as he ramps up his conditioning after being cleared by the NBA return-to-play program. Jarred Vanderbilt, who isn’t a center but is at least another elite frontcourt defender, is at least a week away from double foot surgery last season.

Two-time great Armel Traoré could be called into a backup center role. Or the Lakers could do as they have done in the past and play James and/or Rui Hachimura at backup center in small lineups. Neither option is ideal.

Of course, Davis hasn’t been ruled out (at least not yet). But even if he does well and can play in the road trip finale in Memphis, the Lakers have defensive issues that he hasn’t been able to solve yet.

Los Angeles is staggering after the 3-0 start. The Lakers have lost three of four games and have been thoroughly outplayed in large parts of all of them, including being outscored 141-108 in the second half of their win at the Toronto Raptors and the first half of the loss at the Pistons.

“We’re all disappointed,” coach JJ Redick said.

Before each game, Redick has an important item that he emphasizes with his group for the upcoming game.

For several straight games, the coaching staff’s emphasis has been on the transition defense, which ranked 30th on Monday and was a driving force behind the bottom-six defensive rating.

But given how the Lakers defended for most of the loss, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll climb out of the bottom four of the defensive rankings anytime soon.

At times the Lakers and Pistons seemed to be playing different sports. The Pistons were faster and more athletic, with that combination proving problematic for a Lakers team that is at a relative disadvantage against most opponents in those categories.

Detroit scored 12 of 14 fast-break points in the first half and took a commanding 67–53 lead into the intermission. However, the Lakers held tight defensively in the second half, holding the Pistons to 48 points and just two fast-break points while getting within six points a few times. However, it was too little too late. They again didn’t show up in the first half after running off the floor in Cleveland last Wednesday.

Another first-half disappointment and a derailed road trip have Davis, among others, wondering which team the Lakers really are.

“We’re just two different teams right now,” Davis said. “One game we are this team that has shown that it can be one of the better teams in the league. Then we’re the next team that – I don’t even know who we are. So we just have to be better. …

“We need to put together a full 48 (minutes), and we can’t keep doing this if we expect to do anything this season.”

The problem for the Lakers as they try to regroup this week is that they have looked their best this season, with Davis dominating the interior on both ends of the floor. If he misses any time, they’re in trouble.

(Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)