To lose against the worst team in the league, which is also deprived of my starting point guard (Cade Cunningham) and in “back-to-back”, would have been very bad… The Lakers, still deprived of LeBron James, have avoided this pitfall by winning a second straight victory, for the second time this season, and plunged Detroit a little more into the dark with a sixth consecutive loss.
The Californians began to struggle to contain the attack from the front, carried by a very inspired Alec Burks behind the 3-point line and an equally good, but distant, Bojan Bogdanovic. With those two, the Pistons took the lead after one quarter (30-37) and continued to dig away in the second (38-51). The locals ended up showing a little more seriousness in defense and supported offensively in the opposing racket to switch to the lead at the break (68-64).
The third quarter was the tightest of them all. The Lakers thought of escaping the score thanks to the interior activity of Wenyen Gabriel but they finally only have a small point in advance (96-95) at the start of the last twelve minutes. After a good passage from Austin Reaves, they took three possessions in advance and then it was Anthony Davis who was responsible for ending the last hopes of the visitors.
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– Free throw contest. A match started at 4:30 a.m. (French time) and ended… a little less than three hours later. The explanation? A meeting chopped by very, very many passages on the line of free throws on both sides. Anthony Davis and the Lakers went there 40 times to sign a very good 87.5% success rate (35/40). The Pistons, the team with the most shots in the league, were also rather applied in this sector (24/32).
– The Lakers’ expanded rotation. They were announced and here they are back. While LeBron James was on the bench in civilian clothes watching, sometimes puzzled, his partners, Dennis Schröder and Thomas Bryant put on their shorts. For their first match of the season, the first lacked inspiration in terms of shooting where the second was already very restless in the racket, especially in the second quarter.
– The Pistons remain last. Also beaten tonight, the Rockets escape this status. With this sixth loss in a row, Detroit is the worst team in the league in terms of result, while remaining one of the few to have still not won away (nine losses) with the Warriors and the Lakers precisely.
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ Anthony Davis. Almost as many free throws converted as the entire opposing team, symbol of an evening spent mostly near the circle. The interior signed a second mammoth game in a row statistically. We will particularly remember his huge end of the game during which he took advantage of the good balls of Lonnie Walker IV and Russell Westbrook to register… the last 12 points of his team. Jalen Duren tried in vain to pull out the muscles, the Pistons were no match for him.
✅ Killian Hayes. Fourth game with 11 points or more this month for the Frenchman who signs his best outing in passing and scoring. We especially remember that he showed mastery in the game, not losing a single ball and showing himself to be skilful. Downside to his good outing over 35 minutes, his team was largely dominated in the score when he was in play (-21).
✅ Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel. What a good idea to have kept these two “role players”. The first again made his intelligence speak in all sectors and even allowed himself to take the game on his own at the start of the fourth quarter, to launch his team well. The second behaved like a perfect garbage collector, going in particular to smack several balloons in the circle after penetrations from Russell Westbrook. The latter, author of his fifth double-double of the season, also put him in orbit with an “alley-oop” in transition in the first period.
⛔ Jaden Ivey. While Killian Hayes limited waste as much as possible, the back did the opposite. This one showed good things attacking the circle but outright abused the long-range shot. On arrival 17 points but with 18 shots attempted for the rookie, the biggest volume of all the protagonists on the field.
THE FOLLOWING
Lakers (4-10) : reception of the Spurs, Sunday.
Plungers (3-14) : trip to the Kings, Sunday.
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