The Detroit Pistons swept the season series against the Los Angeles Lakers with a shocking 117-114 win at Crypto.com Arena on Monday. The Lakers had 20 turnovers against the Pistons and in his postgame press conference, Anthony Davis spoke about their failure to keep hold of the ball.
“We were just loose with the ball,” Davis said. “I had maybe four. We were trying to make the right plays but they do a great job of creating turnovers. It’s hard to win a game with 20 but we just got to be better with the basketball. Everybody.
“That’s kind of what was the difference in the game,” Davis continued. “When we were in the half-court, we were pretty good defensively but the turnovers was a big part of why they won.”
The Pistons scored 28 points off of the Lakers’ turnovers. That carelessness also played a part in the visitors shooting the ball 18 more times and you’re not going to win too many games when that happens.
Davis, who had 19 points (7-14 FG), 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and two blocks in this contest, stated that the Pistons do a great job of forcing turnovers but that’s not the case. They are forcing 14.6 turnovers per game this season, which is only good enough for 20th in the NBA. The Lakers made them look better than they actually are.
Later in this press conference, a reporter suggested that the Lakers have had trouble holding on to the ball in the perimeter against physical teams. Davis seemingly agreed and spoke about how they can counteract that.
“Be strong with the ball,” Davis stated. “Teams gonna watch film and look at this game and think that’s the gameplan to come into the game. Just be physical and we’ll turn the ball over. So, we just got to be physical with the basketball. Set the guys up. Not just playing so loosely. And how we counteract that is be physical back.”
As Davis stated, the Lakers, who have now dropped to 16-13 on the season, need to fight fire with fire. If you’re going to crumble when faced with some physicality, you won’t achieve anything of note in the NBA.
Davis himself has to shoulder some of the blame for this loss, though. The 31-year-old had zero points in the fourth quarter (0-3 FG) against the Pistons and that’s not good enough. LeBron James scored 14 points in the period and if he had gotten just a little bit of production out of his co-star, it would have been enough to get the win.
This was the second straight game in which Davis had gone scoreless in the fourth and the Lakers have to be a bit concerned about this. We had seen the nine-time All-Star be aggressive in the big moments earlier this season but he is reverting to his passive self now. If this keeps up, you can expect more frustrating close losses for the Lakers this season.
Davis will get a chance to redeem himself on the big stage, as the Lakers are in action next against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on Christmas Day at 8 PM ET. The big man has had some big games against the Warriors in the past and needs to deliver another masterclass on Wednesday.
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