Lakers Highlights: As Expected, LA Dominates Detroit In Rare Easy W
Perhaps it was fitting that Spencer Dinwiddie’s debut with his hometown Los Angeles Lakers would happen against the team that drafted him out of Colorado in 2014, the 8-45 Detroit Pistons.
The newest Laker was pretty much an afterthought until midway through the contest’s third quarter. Tonight really belonged to LA’s starters.
Let’s get into it.
Against a terrible team, LA effectively took care of business at home from the jump, finally notching an easy win against a team it needed to easily beat. Four of LA’s five starters were already well on their way to double digit scoring nights. The fifth starter, Rui Hachimura, got there by the second half, but it was encouraging to see him be the focal point of a lot of the Lakers’ early offensive sets. He also managed to stay active off-ball, rather than leaking out to the corners and waiting for someone to swing him the rock.
By the break, the game already felt pretty much wrapped. An 18-point, 12-rebound Brow performance helped power the club to a 71-48 first half edge.
Detroit got “fake close” in the third frame.
Across three separate instances, Pistons shrank LA's edge to 13 three times, but the Lakers fought back, and were up by 20, 99-79, at the end of the third. More than anything else, Davis' smoldering defense proved to be the difference:
Dinwiddie scored his first bucket ever for the Purple and Gold in that third frame -- against one of Detroit's most vulnerable defenders, $19 million new trade acquisition Evan Fournier, on a drive. In that frame, the 6'5" combo guard had six points on 2-of-4 shooting from the floor and 1-of-1 shooting from the charity stripe, plus five dimes. Playing 31:17 for the night (the most run of any reserve), he would go on to finish with six points, seven assists, two boards and two steals.
Los Angeles shut the door in the fourth frame, so much so that Darvin Ham subbed out LeBron James for good with 5:33 remaining.
In just 28:23, AD finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds and an insane six blocks. He was an absolutely relentless interior presence on both sides of the ball. Given that he was being defended by a very young Pistons tandem of starter Jalen Duren and reserve James Wiseman, perhaps this was to be expected.
Los Angeles did beat its anticipated -10.5 spread, winning by 14, 125-111. The victory was the Lakers’ fifth success story in their last six games. Los Angeles’ new starting five (D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, James and Davis) remains undefeated (5-0) thus far this season. Hachimura unlocks a lot of fun mismatch opportunities for LA. Reaves and James flashed an intriguing two-man game:
Tonight marked the first matchup of a back-to-back set of bouts. The Lakers travel to Utah to face off against the quietly-tanking Jazz, although James has already revealed he will rest his 39-year-old body ahead of All-Star Weekend.
