The Los Angeles Lakers looked to avenge one of their losses as well as pick up some more success in the Staples Center against the Detroit Pistons. Anthony Davis did not play in the Motor City but made his presence felt early while LeBron James set the table for a win over Detroit.
Oh, it’s over?
The story that everyone will be discussing tomorrow during the Super Bowl parties is what type of voodoo the Detroit Pistons (The team with the worst record in the NBA!), have on the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lake Show barely survived a 135-129 double-overtime marathon against a Pistons team with no Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, or Wayne Ellington. These three players are the ones that handed out business cards in Detroit. Three other Pistons players did in this game.
Just wow…
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Anthony Davis got off to a very hot start!
AD got the ball in the post early and often and he tore the Detroit Pistons front-line up. Wow, what a concept…
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1358257290130825218
Just check the notes from the Lake Show Life Lessons report against the Denver Nuggets.
At the half, AD had almost as many fouls (3) as points and rebounds (4).
AD shooting eight times for an entire game is not a recipe for winning on most nights.
Shooting six free throws (Missing three of them!) is not going to get it either.
Davis shot eight times in the first quarter alone. What’s better? He hit his first six shots with moves like you just saw above. The recipe for success for AD is getting started and in rhythm early.
After scoring only 13 points against Denver, AD had 15 points by halftime. All told, AD finished with 30 points. LeBron James does not need that mandate of getting untracked early. He can get his at any time. Speaking of LeBron…
LeBron James set the table and the tone for the Los Angeles Lakers:
Basically what you just read is what LeBron understood. AD did not have a strong offensive performance the last game and he made sure that the struggles did not go on for multiple games. When Davis got his game running, LeBron started to go to work too.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1358283163865292800
LeBron continued his wildly efficient play filling up the box scores along the way. He finished with 33 points, 11 assists and we’ll get to the second overtime in a second.
In other news, LeBron James came into the contest scoring 25 points or more in 800 games in his career. You can make it 801 now. The next highest? The Captain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There might be a narrative for the Michael Jordan and LeBron James argument that makes sense for all.
- Michael Jordan is the greatest player in NBA history.
- LeBron James will end up having the best career in NBA history.
The Los Angeles Lakers did not get distracted by the physicality of Isaiah Stewart and Mason Plumlee:
One of the main reasons the Lakers lost in Detroit was because they forgot about the task at hand of winning the basketball game and tried to turn it into a tough man competition. Isaiah Stewart bamboozled Montrezl Harrell and others by throwing his body around.
In this game…
Stewart had three fouls and a technical foul by the 10:00 mark of the second quarter. Mason Plumlee did not match his Detroit performance either. Harrell and the Lakers frontline played within themselves and stayed focused.
Dennis Schroder played a much better two-way game for the Los Angeles Lakers!
The Lake Show Life Lessons report was very animated from both sides of the equation with the analysis of Dennis Schroder’s game against Denver. While he scored 21 points, Lake Show Life was very critical of his defensive performance. In this game, the staff is quite satisfied.
Dennis Schroder knocked down his first six shots from the field, he hit all of his free throws and finished with 22 points. But what was more important was how he played his total floor game finishing with 8 assists and 4 rebounds. The defense was much improved as he was much more active.
Did anyone notice the 40 minutes in the box score? That how well Dennis played folks!
The game finally ended!
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
The Los Angeles Lakers have to stop turning the ball over!
This game should have been over early. What kept the Pistons in the game before they gave the Lakers fits from the 3 point line? Turnovers. Seven turnovers in the first quarter ballooned to a season-high 22 for the game. Leaving offensive possessions on the table led to Pistons’ confidence.
Josh Jackson:
Josh Jackson went crazy in the second half. He knocked down five 3 point shots (Three in the 4th quarter!), scored 8 points in the third quarter and 13 in the fourth. The only thing that stopped him was fouling out. He finished with 28 points and 8 rebounds.
Delon Wright:
Lake Show Life has pointed out the defensive struggles on the perimeter all season long. This time, it wasn’t Dennis’ fault. But there is no way that Delon Wright can carve up the defense knocking down 8-10 for 22 points and 10 assists.
3 point shooting:
The Lakers were outscored 48-27 from the land of the extra point? Nuff said!
The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Look, the Los Angeles Lakers got lucky to get out with this one!
The Detroit Pistons are the worst team in the NBA. Half of their squad sat out. There is no reason that this game had to go to double overtime.
The Lakers were outscored 28-18 in the last quarter and the last 6 points before overtime were scored by Detroit. It’s hard to believe that three Pistons players almost beat the World Champions, but they stretched the Lake Show’s night out a lot longer than it should have been.
LeBron James in the second overtime:
LeBron had 8 points in the second overtime with two huge 3 pointers to finally end this.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1358294405501906944
Thank you, LeBron James. If it wasn’t for him, the Lake Show Life Lessons article would have been done on Tuesday night!
Lake Show Life’s more in-depth breakdowns will come in Lake Show Life Lessons tomorrow. Keep it locked for the only Los Angeles Lakers post-game report with highlights and in-depth analysis.