The Los Angeles Lakers have their first losing streak of the season, losing 107-92 to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night. The loss is already disappointing with the fact that this is the first time that the Lakers have lost two in a row this season, but it hurts even more considering the fact that they lost on a game-winner against the great 76ers last night only to get demolished by the Pistons in the final frame of this game. To say the Pistons are one of the worst teams in the NBA would probably be an understatement.
Here’s our recap of the game.
Player of the game – Talen Horton-Tucker
I would have given it to Kyle Kuzma (22 points with 10 rebounds) but he was a -16 in box plus/minus along with many of the other starters. Instead, I’ll give it to Talen Horton-Tucker, who was one of the few Lakers giving the team a spark aside from Kuzma and LeBron James. He had a team-bench-high of 13 points, making all three of his three-point attempts adding two rebounds and an assist as well.
We haven’t seen much of THT lately (has not played in three of the last four games for the Lakers due to the coach’s decision), so it was nice to see that he could bring the energy even with missing a bunch of time lately.
Stat of the game – six minutes and thirty seconds
That’s how long the Lakers went in the 4th quarter without scoring a single point. The terrible drought squandered any chances they had and caused the Lakers to put in their bench-warmers way earlier than they would have hoped (and for a far different reason than what they would have expected in a game against the Pistons). Talen Horton-Tucker hit a three with 8:40 left, with the Lakers not scoring until Devontae Cacok hit a layup in garbage time with 1:50 left.
Quote of the night – “We’ll be fine”
He's also not going to overreact to this game.
"We'll be fine. You have nights like this in a long season… None of us are happy with how we played tonight but we'll bounce back."
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) January 29, 2021
This was Frank Vogel’s words after the game, citing the long season. He still wasn’t happy, saying they still had enough firepower to win the game without Anthony Davis. Definitely an understatement considering how bad the Pistons are, but still. They might have had the firepower, but they didn’t have the effort towards the end.
What’s next?
After the marquee matchup last night against the 76ers, the Lakers will have another against a top Eastern Conference team on Saturday. They’ll be taking on their much-hated rivals in Boston as they pay a visit to the exciting Celtics. The game will be nationally televised on ABC with tip-off at 5:30 p.m. PST.
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