Despite Luka Dončić’s absence, the Los Angeles Lakers won their fifth straight game Sunday night witha 121-116 victory over the Detroit Pistons and moved to 9-2 on the young season. Spearheaded by a 43-point performance from Austin Reaves, their offense led the way as they recorded a 127.4 offensive rating — their fourth-highest mark of the year, per Cleaning the Glass — against Detroit’s third-ranked defense.
The Lakers roared out to 38-14 advantage after the first quarter before scoring just 50
points the next two periods. Then, as the Pistons inched closer, they slammed the door shut with a 33-point final frame to secure the win.
“Love the way we started the game. There was a tremendous amount of, even in the pregame tape, a tremendous amount of focus on our part on handling their activity, pressure, their fouling, all of that stuff,” head coach JJ Redick told reporters following the win. “Outside of the third, and particularly, those four straight possessions in the third, I thought we did a good job of that. Overall, having three turnovers in that fourth quarter, when they were really trying to ramp up their defense, we just showed a lot of poise throughout.”
Among the hallmarks of the Pistons’ stingy defense is their ability to generate takeaways — they rank third in opposing turnover rate at 17.9% this season and were first a year ago. Even without Dončić, the Lakers managed to dip below Detroit’s season average and produced a 16.8% turnover rate.
They’ve had plenty better showings this year (five, to be exact) but it’s a vastly improved number compared to their other Dončić-less outing, when they turned the ball over 23.3% of the time against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 28. For his part, Reaves was superbly economical and committed just one turnover on his 79 touches Sunday.
The West-leading Lakers will aim for a sixth consecutive win Monday night against the 7-4 Atlanta Hawks, which are riding their own four-game winning streak and tout the NBA’s fourth-highest opposing turnover rate. Los Angeles will hope this one features Dončić back in the fold. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
