3/23/26 7:00PM Lakers 46-25 @ Pistons 51-19

[Sports_Freak]

Wow...dont even look at what our next opponent is doing tonight. Just enjoy this one for a bit. And I hope some of the fans are a bit more positive now. Defense never rests....

[Sports_Freak]

5 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

They are beating the teams they should beat so far. 

Two more easy games then things get more interesting.

Atlanta next and they're hot. 9-1 in lastc10. Winning by 40 points in the 4th tonight. I wouldn't call it easy...call every game a challenge.

[Tigeraholic1]

Great win! Glad I made the drive over to see it. Watching LeBron with his head down running to the locker room was even sweeter.

[Deleterious]

8 minutes ago, NYLion said:

They should have beat a healthy Lakers team? Lets give them some credit

The Lakers are the most overrated team in the league.  No defense, no bigs to speak of.  Luke Kennard played 28 minutes a guy that would get zero minutes on Detroit, and they need shooting.  LaRavia has started 34 games this year for them, he has zero starts in his previous 4 seasons.  

Much like last year when LA finished 3rd in the west, they are going to be a first round loser.  

[Deleterious]

11 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Atlanta next and they're hot. 9-1 in lastc10. Winning by 40 points in the 4th tonight. I wouldn't call it easy...call every game a challenge.

It was against Memphis.  Did you see their recent win streak opponents?

Brooklyn

Wizards

Wizards

Portland

Bucks

76ers (No Embiid or PG13)

Dallas

Brooklyn

Bucks

Orlando

Dallas

Golden State

Two wins against playin teams, the rest of their wins are against teams already out of the playoffs.  It's not like they are running through OKC, San Antonion, Boston, etc.  They are beating bad teams, most of which are trying to lose.  

 

 

[Deleterious]

 

[NYLion]

14 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

The Lakers are the most overrated team in the league.  No defense, no bigs to speak of.  Luke Kennard played 28 minutes a guy that would get zero minutes on Detroit, and they need shooting.  LaRavia has started 34 games this year for them, he has zero starts in his previous 4 seasons.  

Much like last year when LA finished 3rd in the west, they are going to be a first round loser.  

They won 9 in a row with some of those wins against good teams and you literally said it was a rough matchup earlier in the thread. Sure they're probably overrated but I don't know why the Pistons don't get credit for beating them without two of their best players, nobody was saying that the Pistons "should" have won this game. In fact, a lot of people were writing the Pistons obituary the moment the Cade injury news came out and they're showing that they're a lot more than just Cade.

Edited Tuesday at 02:05 AM by NYLion

[Sports_Freak]

8 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

It was against Memphis.  Did you see their recent win streak opponents?

Brooklyn

Wizards

Wizards

Portland

Bucks

76ers (No Embiid or PG13)

Dallas

Brooklyn

Bucks

Orlando

Dallas

Golden State

Two wins against playin teams, the rest of their wins are against teams already out of the playoffs.  It's not like they are running through OKC, San Antonion, Boston, etc.  They are beating bad teams, most of which are trying to lose.  

 

 

Good teams do what they have to against bad teams. The Pistons can't afford to take any team lightly, remember the Nets!

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

36 minutes ago, NYLion said:

They won 9 in a row with some of those wins against good teams and you literally said it was a rough matchup earlier in the thread. Sure they're probably overrated but I don't know why the Pistons don't get credit for beating them without two of their best players, nobody was saying that the Pistons "should" have won this game. In fact, a lot of people were writing the Pistons obituary the moment the Cade injury news came out and they're showing that they're a lot more than just Cade.

I said from the minute Cade got hurt the Pistons had a very easy schedule remaining.  I also said they will retain the #1 seed without much of a problem.  

I also said if Cade is not back by the 1st round, they will lose in the 1st round.  Playoffs are a totally different animal.  Maybe if they get a scrub team like Charlotte they can win or even Philly.  But I think Miami and Orlando might beat them.  

[Betrayer]

Great win against a team we should have lost to without Cade and Stew. Say what you will about the Laker being frauds as contenders - they certainly are - but they're still a playoff team that should have beaten us without Cade.

Clutch performance by Jenkins, who seems to have found his groove again now that he's starting. I only hope it continues when Cade comes back and he goes back to being a backup. The Jenkins we've seen these last few games would be huge off the bench in the playoffs.

[Deleterious]

Is Jenkins turning it around or just playing bad teams? 

Washington x2, Golden State, and the Lakers are not exactly murderers row. I know the Lakers should be 82-0 but the reality is they are one of the worst defenses in the league. Their only PoA defender didn't play tonight. 

I get Will Bynum vibes from Jenkins. Plays great for a few games then disappears for two or three weeks. 

[Cruzer1]

Jenkins >>>>>>>>>>>>> Ivey

[Deleterious]

Imagine the hype Jenkins will get it he ever averages double digits.

[Shinzaki]

Nice job by JD to switch out to Luka and stay in front of him on that last shot airball.

[Betrayer]

7 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Is Jenkins turning it around or just playing bad teams? 

Washington x2, Golden State, and the Lakers are not exactly murderers row. I know the Lakers should be 82-0 but the reality is they are one of the worst defenses in the league. Their only PoA defender didn't play tonight. 

I get Will Bynum vibes from Jenkins. Plays great for a few games then disappears for two or three weeks. 

I'm not sure it's the competition so much as the lack of consistency that defines every second or third string player. If those guys were consistent they'd be starters or stars.

He's getting the same shots he's been getting all along - open threes and open 12 footers. He's just hitting them again like he was earlier in the season.

I'm just hoping he's on the upswing and not the downswing again when we roll into the playoffs.

[Betrayer]

30 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

Nice job by JD to switch out to Luka and stay in front of him on that last shot airball.

I hate that JB doesn't do the smart thing and just foul when he's up 3 (or even put his best defenders in most of the time), but JD did a nice job of staying down on Luka's pump fakes and crowding him without fouling.

[gehringer_2]

17 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

I'm not sure it's the competition so much as the lack of consistency that defines every second or third string player. If those guys were consistent they'd be starters or stars.

He's getting the same shots he's been getting all along - open threes and open 12 footers. He's just hitting them again like he was earlier in the season.

I'm just hoping he's on the upswing and not the downswing again when we roll into the playoffs.

And can he keep playing 40min/game?

[NYLion]

10 hours ago, Betrayer said:

I'm not sure it's the competition so much as the lack of consistency that defines every second or third string player. If those guys were consistent they'd be starters or stars.

He's getting the same shots he's been getting all along - open threes and open 12 footers. He's just hitting them again like he was earlier in the season.

I'm just hoping he's on the upswing and not the downswing again when we roll into the playoffs.

Jenkins seems to play better when he gets more minutes, it makes me wonder how he'd look alongside Cade in clutch moments. Hate him all you want and it seems like some folks are looking for reasons to not like him but he's probably the second best shot creator on this team believe it or not so Cade having another guy like that in crunch time could be beneficial. Just a thought

[Deleterious]

There is a simple explanation why Jenkins appears to play better with more minutes.

He's a backup.

Backup players that play well are rewarded with more minutes.  The only time he plays 25+ minutes a game is when he plays well.  

[Betrayer]

14 hours ago, NYLion said:

Jenkins seems to play better when he gets more minutes, it makes me wonder how he'd look alongside Cade in clutch moments. Hate him all you want and it seems like some folks are looking for reasons to not like him but he's probably the second best shot creator on this team believe it or not so Cade having another guy like that in crunch time could be beneficial. Just a thought

Crunch time is typically defined as the last 5 minutes of the 4th. I'm not a big fan of the idea for a few reasons...

The first reason is that's he's far less useful as an off-ball player. He's a backup PG.

More importantly, the second reason is that you have a major advantage - especially on defense - that you're throwing away. You have a 6'6"+ PG and he can be the smallest guy in your lineup. As hard as Daniss works on defense, he was on the struggle bus trying to contain Reaves in the 2nd half due to the size difference. On that last shot by Reaves you can see Daniss has great position, loads up, and jumps as high as he can to block the shot, but doesn't even bother it in any way.

Thirdly, we all know JB would choose Ausar as the guy to bench to make this happen, and that's just an idiotic choice in the last 5 minutes of a game for so many reasons that we've all discussed a million times.

For the record, I wasn't a fan of Schroeder sharing minutes with Cade last year for all of these same reasons.

So, if we're taking Duncan's minutes when he's having an off night or if we're talking about 1 possession on offense, then sure. Otherwise, no thanks, I'm not getting smaller or taking Ausar off the court in the last 5 minutes of a game.