Not without much suffering, the Los Angeles Lakers took their 18th victory. The Californian team needed two extra time to get rid of some tough Pistons, who arrived at Staples as bottom bottoms of the NBA but who planted much more expensive than could be expected. In fact, those from Michigan were even weakened by the losses of Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin, but they knew how to recover from their problems and forced the locals to fight to end up prevailing by 135-129.
During some stages, however, it did not seem that Vogel’s men were going to have such a bad time to get the match going. As the minutes passed, the Angelenos were little by little taking the reins of the crash, and midway through the third quarter they had an advantage of 17 points (80-63) that, added to the problems of Detroit, invited to think that it would be a relatively placid night for them. However, Casey’s men managed to go little by little closing the distance, and with a basket from Josh Jackson with 3.1 seconds left, they put the tie at 106 that led the game to extra time.
One of the keys to the comeback was the high number of losses committed by the Lakers, who, with 23, signed their worst performance of the course in terms of ball care. Josh Jackson himself was also one of the great architects of it, since, beyond culminating it with the tying basket, he managed to score 21 of his 28 points between the third and last quarter.
Already in extra time, the Pistons took the lead for the first time in many minutes (they were never ahead in the second half) and were in a position to take the game, but they were not able to close it. Anthony Davis put the tie at 118 with 18 seconds remaining in an action in which a foul that would have meant a 2 + 1 was called, and Jerami Grant failed to score the shot that would have meant the visitor’s victory, leading the match to a second overtime that had a single owner.
LeBron gets serious
LeBron James, who had 25 points at the time, took control of the last five minutes and scored 8 points in the second overtime, leading his team to a 17-11 run that allowed them to finally close the match. With two triples in step-back, the forward put an end to the hopes of some combative Pistons, and also managed to become the top scorer of the clash with 33 points, to which he added 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Anthony Davis, with 30 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, was his best ally, while Dennis Schröder also shone with 22 and 8 assists.
On the road, Jerami Grant was the top man with 32 points, followed by 28 from a Josh Jackson who woke up after the break but faded again in overtime. With this, the Pistons accumulate four consecutive defeats, and in fact their last victory came precisely on the visit to the Lakers in Detroit, where they managed to surprise how close they have been this morning.
(Cover photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
