With the Lakers trailing the Thunder 95-91 on Friday night, LA needed a score to keep their hopes of a win alive. Max Christie stepped up in a big way, hitting a turnaround jumper to cut the lead to two points.

OKC had possession with 39 seconds left, meaning that if Los Angeles managed to stop it, they would have plenty of time to get a shot off and either force overtime or win the game.

Unfortunately, Christie made a game-winning mistake by intentionally fouling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 22 seconds left in the game.

When the whistle blew, it was as if the realization hit Christie that the Thunder were already in the bonus, which meant they would automatically shoot free throws.

Christie put his hands on his head, confused at the mistake. To his credit, he took full responsibility for this mental error after the game.

“Yes, it was a misinterpretation on my part,” Christie said. “Still, I knew the game time and the score, but I didn’t know they were in the bonus and I should have known because they were in the bonus in the last three or four minutes. This is a mental error on my part. I take responsibility for that.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick also discussed the play during his postgame press conference, explaining that he was signaling a play call and did not want Christie to commit a foul.

“He looked at me and I gave him the reporting call,” Redick said. “And I guess he interpreted that as a foul, but obviously I yelled the coverage call.”

SGA converted free throws to give the Thunder a four-point lead. The Lakers got the ball back, but OKC stole the inbound pass and Jalen Williams punched it home, ending any hope of an LA win.

The loss nearly eliminated the Lakers from the NBA Cup, and while the game was undoubtedly a low point for Christie, he had a good attitude about it after the loss.

“I won’t say my mistake cost us the whole game, but it was definitely probably the biggest one of the game,” Christie said. “So it is what it is. I have to learn from it.”

This scenario is very similar to when Anthony Davis missed free throws in a narrow loss to the Magic in early November.

These moments when players come up short in close games contribute to the outcome, but are not the main or only reason why the Lakers lost to the Magic or the Thunder.

Remember, in Friday’s game against OKC, LA was already behind, unable to break the hundred scoring mark and dominated on offense, 15-8.

So yes, the mistake was bad and Christie has no reason to be unaware of the scenario. However, virtually every Laker performed worse against the Thunder, so there’s plenty of blame to go around.

This was a serious mistake on Christie’s part, but he needs to shake it off as the Lakers trust him to be a reliable part of the rotation.

This team has no room for self-inflicted mistakes against the West’s best, so he’ll need to be sharper going forward if LA wants to pick up wins with what’s left of 2024.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.