Detroit Pistons vs. Los Angeles Lakers 2019-20 season preview
The Los Angeles Lakers are a forced to be reckoned with this season but the Detroit Pistons could rise to the occasion. Here’s a look at the season preview.
Many younger fans of the Detroit Pistons don’t fully understand why they should hate the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the 1988 NBA Finals, the Lakers stole game 6 from the Pistons on Bill Laimbeer’s famous “Phantom Foul” where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was awarded the game-winning free throws although he was never touched on his creaky missed sky hook.
In game 7, Magic Johnson blatantly fouled Isiah Thomas on the last play of the game as Lakers’ fans rushed the court with time remaining on the clock. The refs did nothing about either and somehow allowed the Lakers to win a series Detroit should have had wrapped up the night before.
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It was a travesty.
Detroit exacted their revenge the very next year, sweeping the gold and purple cheaters out of the gym. Detroit gave the Lakers another pounding in the 2004 Finals, a five game “gentlemen’s sweep” of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Though the rivalry has dimmed a bit since, the Lakers are still a team I look forward to beating because I hold grudges.
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The two teams split their meetings last season, with the Lakers winning in January behind a 41-point effort by Kyle Kuzma and the Pistons winning in March on a balanced attack featuring five players in double figures.
Unfortunately we can’t learn much from last season’s games as the two teams (especially the Lakers) look markedly different heading into the 2019-20 season. LeBron James didn’t play in either game last year and many of those players are no longer on the Lakers’ roster.
As with most teams featuring LeBron, the Lakers have faced major roster churn and made some of the flashiest off season moves in an effort to back to the Finals.