Opponent Scouting: LA Lakers (3-10)
Tonight at 10:30pm EST the Detroit Pistons continue their west-coast trip by facing the Lakers. The Pistons are on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Clippers while the Lakers are on 4(!!) nights of rest following a victory over the Nets.
The Them:
The Lakers are very bad. They are 3-10, they sport the NBA’s worst offense and 15th defense. It is possible that their two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis suit up, as of now I still have not seen anything confirming or denying it.
If they play, LeBron is still exceptional and while saying “his age is starting to show” is probably more of a statement on how absurd he’s been his whole career, he is at a point where he does not take over games as easily as he once did. Both James and Davis have shot very poorly from deep this season and in fact Davis is one of the worst jump shooters in the entire league. Russell Westbrook is here, he actually hasn’t been an abject disaster but he’s still bad. Other than that its a collection of largely mediocre to outright bad role-players. I don’t really even feel like running down the line. Patrick Beverly is aggressive defensively, Lonnie Walker is fairly athletic and shooting the ball well, Kendrick Nunn has been awful, Juan Toscano-Anderson plays hard.
This team is awful. Even if Davis and James were at the peak of their powers this team would be struggling. After those two there may be….. 3 other guys who would be rotational players on a good team. Maybe. That said, the Pistons are also awful so this should be a competitive game!
Matchups to watch:
Offense: These are two of the league’s worst offensive outfits. We saw this last night against the Clippers and it was a slog. The Lakers are not as stout defensively and the Clippers so this may be a better watch but still. If either team gets an above average night shooting or someone playing over their heads it could easily turn the tide.
Pistons bench vs. Winning their minutes: The Lakers might be the only team in the league that sports a worse bench unit than Detroit. Take advantage.
Davis/LeBron vs playing: duh
Pistons vs. Anthony Davis: If he does play the Pistons genuinely have no one for him. His total inability to hit jumpers has somewhat neutered his offensive game but given the defensive options the Pistons have, Davis may not need to hit jumpers to dominate.
Saddiq Bey vs. Finding his shot: It is mid-November and Saddiq Bey is officially shooting below 30% from deep on the season. I have been highly complimentary of Bey this year but that isn’t going to cut it. We can live with streaky shooting, but it needs to streak in the right direction occasionally.
Killian Hayes vs. Staying aggressive: Hayes has a tendency to fade away after a bad night shooting the ball. Despite an off night yesterday he needs to still look for his shot occasionally.