Not even the old MoTown Bad Boys created such havoc in California, and the Detroit Pistons might not be done yet, as they’ve put their target at Los Angeles Lakers, who will try to do what better teams couldn’t protect their house against the invasion (but not of the usual Halloween sort).
Pistons at Lakers
Spread: Detroit -4.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 209 points (-110)
The Pistons earn another marquee win in Oakland
It’s still very early in the season and the wins don’t feel that significant, but it has to feel good for the Detroit Pistons to go to highly touted championship team’s arena and win. The Pistons have led for most of the second half and cruised to a 107-115 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, in front of the national audience. They haven’t even played their best game, and were tired after beating Clippers in Los Angeles the previous night.
For the good or the bad, Andre Drummond was in the middle of it all. Detroit center anchored the defense with 18 rebounds and 5 steals. On the offense, 5 assists from the big guy was a welcoming sight, and he was the only starter who had a positive plus-minus. He played 41 minutes and gave it all in, but also faltered in some ways. You’ll rarely see a traditional center shoot 4-of-17 from the field (a part of it were put back attempts that had little chance of bouncing in). Drummond also had 4 turnovers. Harris, the key cog in the Pistons success this season, was only marginally better shooting the ball. He went 6-of-18 as he couldn’t use his athleticism to his advantage against long Warriors forwards. Instead, the Pistons were carried by the backcourt, who hadn’t been playing at a particularly high standard prior to this game. Starters Bradley (23) and Jackson (22), and the backup point Ish Smith (16) combined to shoot 22-of-32 in this game, as the Pistons wouldn’t do anything to hurt them. They still trailed by double digits in the third quarter, but eventually the carelessness of the Warriors caught up with them and the 25 turnovers were the final straw.
The Pistons return to L.A. to play the Lakers before packing bags to fly back home. Van Gundy will have to calm the spirits and not let the two really good wins get spoiled by a loss to a lesser opposition. They should be playing with the full squad as there were no report of injuries since the Warriors game.
Place: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 31st, 2017. 10:30 PM ET
TV Coverage: NBATV
Back to school for the Lakers
A learning process was always the part of the rebuilding, so as much as the Lakers want to accelerate the return to relevancy, they’ll have to cope with games like they’ve played on the back-to-back against the Raptors and Utah. It’s a tough set-up for any team, so there’s no shame in losing them both. However, coach Walton did not like what he saw with his team. A victory over the Wizards might have got into the heads of the inexperienced Lakers and they quickly started playing like primadonnas. He recognized it and promptly benched the entire starting unit in the game against Toronto. Twice. The message was sent across and the Lakers learned from the humbling experience, but couldn’t cope with the Jazz despite the effort.
Unready for a specific style of patient, precision basketball of the Utah Jazz, the Lakers quickly fell behind and trailed by double digits since early in the game. In a game with fewer possessions, it felt that the game was over when the Jazz opened up a 15 point lead in the middle of the third quarter, but the Lakers wouldn’t quit. They’ve used all of their energy and cut down the lead to five in the fourth, but have run out of steam and lost 81-96. It was the Jazz tenacious defense that caused the trouble, as one could expect. LA shot just 38 percent from the field and connected on just 5 three-point tries in the game. Brandon Ingram led the way with 16 points on a 7-of-14 shooting, scoring 9 points in the third to help his team cut into the lead at the crucial time. Clarkson provided with 15 points off the bench – all the others were kept in single digits. Lonzo Ball was apologetic after the game, vying to improve on his decision making, shooting percentage and defense. It’s a swan’s song to Lakers’ front office ears. He played the worst game of his young career with 9 points (3-of-10 FGs, all of the makes were treys), 2 boards, 4 assists and 5 turnovers.
Walton wants his team to go and play even faster than they were so far, and that’s probably not a bad thing in theory, as they get to use their youth to their advantage. However, the decision making isn’t at a great level, so it’ll lead to more bad possessions, except that they’ll be more quickly replaced by other possessions and thus better masked.
Detroit Pistons at Los Angeles Lakers Game Trends & Prediction
Can’t do much better than the 6-1 Pistons’ score against the spread. They’ve beaten three quality teams and disappointed only against Phila, which was obviously just a day off for them. The game in Bay Area was an over by just a single point, but it’s making a difference. Detroit is now 4-3 against the over/under, but there are no significant trends to run after.
The L.A. Lakers are as hyped as a bad team can be, mostly due to high expectations from Lonzo Ball and the improvements to the roster. They aren’t going to earn you money that way. After consecutive ATS losses, they are now just 2-4 against the spread, and one of the wins came at the hand of the Suns. The struggle to score consistently and the high tempo that makes bookie set high lines marred them into a 2-4 over/under team, so it’s difficult to profit off of their games.
Admi-Rank: The 5-2 start of the Pistons cannot be attributed to chance, and AdmiRank is recognizing the success. They are now the fourth-highest ranked team in the East and are trending to even higher place. Meanwhile, the Lakers haven’t had a good week, hurting their already low rating with few walls they had hit.
The Pistons are suddenly expected to win this easily, but while the difference between side can’t be ignored, I don’t think they’ll be able to cruise to victory. The Lakers are going to push the ball, helping their case in this game (as they’ll likely suffer in half court game against Pistons’ D), and as much as the Pistons fought and earned the previous two wins, a part of their success was just Clippers and Warriors not playing up to the usual standards.
The books are setting up the market with Pistons a 4.5-point jolly, which is a fair number. There’s absolutely no value on either side and the line won’t move much on the game day. If you were hoping to get the away team, that hopes were washed away with the win against the champions. It’s going to take a while until the value returns on Detroit. Meanwhile, we can try to exploit the current value on the overs on this game, since the line is set to an acceptable 209 total points.
My Pick: (no wager on the spread)
Total: Over 209 points (-110)
