LOS ANGELES_The Los Angeles Lakers weren't giving anything up for free against the Detroit Pistons.
Quite literally, actually. It took the Pistons almost three and a half quarters to shoot their first free throw.
It was true in the figurative sense, too. The Lakers actually play defense now. They fought and scrapped and ran back in transition, delighting their head coach who has been looking for this for more than a year. And on Tuesday night they kept it going for an entire game.
The Lakers beat the Pistons 113-93 at Staples Center, leading comfortably most of the night against a Detroit team playing its third game in four nights on the West Coast.
The Pistons opened the trip with impressive wins over the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, but the Lakers managed to hold their opponent under 100 points for the third time in four games, and in back-to-back for the first time. The Lakers had seven players score in double figures, led again by backups Julius Randle (17 points) and Kyle Kuzma (16).
In the first halves of their first three games, the Lakers gave up 53, 73 and 68 points. Through that Coach Luke Walton continued the mantra he repeated last season: He said they would improve, eventually. He said he wouldn't give up.
It didn't happen last season. The Lakers finished as the worst defensive team in the NBA. They have been among the worst for four years straight, predating Walton's hiring.
To fix it the Lakers added players who would commit to defense: veterans Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Andrew Bogut, rookies Josh Hart and Kuzma. They taught their existing players, like Brandon Ingram and Jordan Clarkson, how to be better defenders. They even got more of it than they expected from their rookie point guard, Lonzo Ball.
"A lot of young guys that are drafted as high as him aren't really concerned with that end of the floor," Walton said. "And whether it's jumping into the ball handler or trying to fight over screens or back challenges once he does get hit by screens, (he's) not giving up on plays. All the little things that come from playing on that end of the court, with effort, he's doing really well."
It's beginning to pay off and make the days of defensive futility seem much further away than they actually are.
