If this is the final season of LeBron James’ spectacular career, the Detroit Pistons will only get two more chances to play him, and when you look at the schedule, there is a chance King James won’t be playing in Detroit.
LeBron has put together a dominant career against the Pistons, with a 42-23 record against Detroit in which he’s averaged 24.1 points, 7.2 assists and 6.8 rebounds, the kinds of elite all-around numbers that he has against just about everyone.
It gets even worse in the playoffs, where LeBron has averaged 26.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists against the Pistons in 21 games, including a 48-point masterpiece back in 2007 that we’d all rather forget.
You can debate about who the greatest NBA player of all time is, and there are a couple of players that have a solid argument, but it’s hard to argue against LeBron James having the greatest NBA career of all time and it's not particularly close.
The man was 2nd-team All-NBA at 40 years old and hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down, at least on offense, where he is still putting up incredible all-around numbers.
LeBron will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, and it’s possible he’ll come back with the Lakers or with some other team he thinks has a shot at a title. But there’s also a chance he’ll hang it up after this season, in which case, fans in Detroit may miss out.
Detroit Pistons schedule: LeBron James and load management
LeBron played 70 games at age 40 last season, ensuring he was eligible for awards like the All-NBA team.
If Lebron does not get injured, we can expect him to play a similar number of games next season, as he’ll want to put himself in line for awards and his team should be fighting for playoff position.
But if he does take some rest days towards the end of the year, the Detroit game could be one of them.
The Pistons play the Lakers on March 23rd, which is fairly late in the season and happens to fall in the middle of a grueling stretch for the Lakers.
The game is part of a 6-game road trip for the Lakers and the Pistons game will be their 5th in seven days, a tough stretch for a 41-year-old trying to stay healthy for the playoffs.
We have no idea where these two teams will be or what the context will look like in March of next year, so it’s possible LeBron will be in there if the Lakers desperately need to win the game.
But if they don’t, this is the exact type of game that LeBron usually sits out. He’ll have to pick and choose his spots, as there will be pressure on LeBron to play every night with fans flocking for tickets to see him play, possibly for the last time.
Hopefully he won’t do Detroit dirty, and fans will get treated to one of the greatest players to ever live.