The Los Angeles Lakers came out of their black hole of three straight losses by winning over the mediocre Detroit Pistons on Sunday night (121-116). But the evening was marked by the expulsion of LeBron James at the start of the third quarter for a gross foul on Isaiah Stewart.
In the fight with the latter for a rebound, the Lakers superstar hit him severely in the face. Bloodied and furious, Stewart wanted to come to grips with his rival and had to be restrained several times by his teammates. He too was sent off as Russell Westbrook was given a technical foul for getting involved in the altercation. Fortunately, the melee did not degenerate.
Led 79-67 at this point in the game, the Lakers raised their heads without their totem pole, thanks to the solid performances of Antony Davis (30 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 blocks, 4 steals) and Russell Westbrook, very close to the triple double (26 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists). “Everyone raised their level when LB came out”, said Davis. The Angels are back to 8th place in the Western Conference with a record of 9 wins for as many losses.
The crazy rise of Davis and Westbrook
The Pistons, deprived of their French leader Killian Hayes injured a thumb, yet displayed a pretty face for a team trailing in the depths of the NBA, 14th in the Eastern Conference (4 v. – 12 d.). Jerami Grant split 36 points (12/25 shooting, 5/9 to 3 pts) and Cade Cunningham, number 1 in the last draft, became at 20 years and 2 months the youngest player in the history of the franchise to sign a triple double: 13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, with 2 steals. The prodigy was however quite clumsy in the shoot (6/21, 1/9 behind the arc) and suffered two crucial blocks from Anthony Davis at the end of the match.
Davis and Westbrook were successful in the last quarter (more than 10 pts each), which their team had started with fifteen lengths behind (99-84). “Seeing guys re-mobilize around a teammate sent off under strange circumstances is one of those things that can change the dynamics of your season,” considers their trainer, Frank Vogel after this great comeback. We played with incredible guts. “
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