The Detroit Pistons were never going to beat the Los Angeles Lakers.
From the opening tip, the Pistons never had it. They fell behind early, then they fell behind by more, and then even more. They shot it poorly, they defended worse. D’Angelo Russell made them look like the Motor City Cruise, stunting on them in ways he hasn’t stunted in years.
The Lakers won 133-107 on Wednesday, and frankly, it wasn’t even that close.
Detroit mailed it in, and after (now) 15-consecutive losses, is anyone really surprised?
I don’t even know where to begin. Everything was bad, except the Lakers, who looked like the best team on the planet. That’s funny because they looked the exact opposite in a 44-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this week.
Russell did what he wanted with 35 points and 9 assists on 13 of 17 shooting, while LeBron James and Anthony Davis had the most ho-hum dominant performances with 28 points + 8 rebounds and 28 points + 16 rebounds, respectively.
The Pistons defense made the Lakers look like a team going through shoot around. It could not have been easier for them.
Detroit didn’t rotate, they didn’t contest much, they couldn’t play without fouling It was a failure on all accounts and that doesn’t even touch on how punchless they were offensively.
Isaiah Livers, the sacrificial lamb who had to speak for the failures of this team last game, backed up his words with 14 points and 4 triples off the bench. He was easily the best guy on the floor for Detroit.
Cade was a non factor with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assist, while Isaiah Stewart and Ausar Thompson each scored the least impactful 12 points of the night. Jalen Duren might as well have stayed home because he was thoroughly outplayed by every big on the Lakers roster, and the bench, outside of Livers, combined to shoot 35% from the field.
Like, what the hell is even going on here?
This isn’t a sinking ship, it’s sunk. It’s at the bottom of the ocean.
Monty Williams doesn’t have answers. Troy Weaver’s only recourse appears to be misguided hope that the man he refused to trade last year — Bojan Bogdanovic — returns later this week with a vengeance and provides an opportunity to actually deal him while he elevates the Pistons from god-awful to maybe-just-normal-awful.
But in the scheme of things, none of that matters.
This season is over, and it’s not even December.
Feels free to commiserate in the comments.