Ranking Kobe Bryant’s top 10 games against the Detroit Pistons
By Riley Nisbet
6. January 29, 2006
Despite meeting in the Finals less than two years prior, by the 2005-06 season, it became clear that the Los Angeles Lakers and the Detroit Pistons organizations were heading in two opposite directions.
In their first match-up of the year, the Lakers came to Auburn Hills, Michigan with a meager 23-19 record to meet the 36-5 Pistons. Although the records would be a predictor of the game’s final score — the Pistons taking it handily, 102-93 — Kobe would go off for 39 points.
After the Lakers traded Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat following the 2004 season, Kobe became a centerpiece for the teams’ offense, and that was on full display in this game.
Bryant had a game-high usage percentage of 37.7%, and he would add six rebounds and three assists to his stat line.
This game is a prime example of a defensive strategy that is forced to let Kobe be Kobe. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it did not work. Without Shaq down low, the Pistons were able to impose their defense in other areas and simply do as best they could on Kobe.
Kobe routinely made even the best defensive lineups seem filled with gaps, and the Goin’-to-Work Pistons, even at their prime, were not immune.