LOS ANGELES – Andre Drummond and the Detroit Pistons will take on the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
The Pistons are 5-2 and coming off back-to-back West Coast wins against the Clippers and Warriors.
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The Lakers are 2-4 and have lost two straight games against the Raptors and the Utah Jazz.
Here's what you need to know for Lakers-Pistons tonight:
Tip off time: 10:30 p.m. ET
TV info: FSDT, NBAt, SPEC
Streaming info: Fox Sports Go App
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Mitchell scores career-high 22, Jazz beat Lakers 96-81
His Utah Jazz teammates had been waiting for athletic rookie Donovan Mitchell to show off his explosiveness in a game. They finally got it Saturday night when the No. 12 overall draft pick caught an offensive rebound with one hand, behind his head and slammed it home in the same motion with Lonzo Ball looking up from the ground and the crowd going wild.
Mitchell scored a career-high 22 points and the Jazz held on for a 96-81 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The victory broke a two-game losing streak for the Jazz.
“I haven’t caught a dunk like that in a long time, so it was kind of crazy,” Mitchell said. “It was kind of surreal.
“I’ve been struggling the last few games offensively. Defensively, I’ve been playing well, but as a young kid, it gets in your head that you’re not scoring that much.”
The Jazz jumped out to a 21-7 lead thanks to a 16-3 run highlighted by a floater from Mitchell after he pump-faked Ball and got to his spot with a eurostep. The Lakers, however, hung around throughout the night and made it a game in the fourth quarter, but never led.
Ricky Rubio scored a season-high 21 points, had seven rebounds and four assists for the Jazz while Derrick Favors had his first double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Mitchell’s corner 3-pointer with 1:48 remaining gave the Jazz a 91-79 lead and put the game away.
“I thought that we were gritty,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “I like that we shot 31 3s. We had one less turnover than last game, so showed improvement on that.
“The game became different when they started switching everything in pick-and-roll. That’s something we need to learn how to attack better. ... Guys just have to have courage to drive to the basket. ... There were times when we were questioning ourselves in those situations.”
Brandon Ingram led the Lakers with 16 points and Jordan Clarkson put up 15 off the bench. Ball, the No. 2 overall draft pick, finished with nine points, two rebounds and four assists — the rebounds and assists were season lows.
“We are still trying to find our identity still,” Ball said. “We are trying to run and some of the possessions are getting caught in the half court and we are just standing. So it comes with practice. We have to figure it out in practice and transition to the game.
“I think I had nine points, four assists, something like that. It’s not enough.”
Utah cruised through the second quarter before the Lakers found some momentum in the third and cut the lead to eight points thanks to nine third-quarter points from Ingram. Mitchell put together one of the best stretches of his young career to push the lead back to 75-64 at the end the quarter. He had an old school three-point play, the monstrous rebound dunk and a 3 from the top of the arc in just over 2 minutes.
An 8-2 run to start the fourth quarter cut the Jazz lead to 77-72, but the Lakers were never quite able to get over the hump.
“I think the little things hurt us down the stretch,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “They executed a little better than we did down the stretch. They hit that offensive glass, that is a big team.
“It wasn’t our guys not fighting. I thought our guys did a good job of fighting they had some big second opportunities that hurt. They made more shots than we did at the end of the day.”
Warriors handed second loss at home, fall 115-107 to Pistons
Stephen Curry believes the Warriors are close to being their old, dominant selves again, even if so much seems to be going wrong so far.
One night, it’s offensive rebounds surrendered. Another, it’s turnovers. Or, an all-out foul fest.
The defending champions are showing some serious flaws — and coach Steve Kerr is calling out his team to be far more composed.
Curry and Golden State got handed a second home defeat at this early stage of the season, falling 115-107 to the Pistons on Sunday night as Avery Bradley scored 23 points for Detroit.
“It just has to matter enough. Right now it just doesn’t seem to matter. Our guys are lacking in energy and focus and discipline,” Kerr said. “We finally started caring with six minutes left when we were threatened and we immediately cut it to three because we cared. But the right team won, karma was in the right place tonight.”
Tobias Harris hit a 3-pointer with 1:27 remaining that all but sealed it after Kevin Durant fueled a late Warriors rally.
Durant hit consecutive 3-pointers to get Golden State back within 101-94 then dunked the next time down to make it 103-96 with 4:40 to go before finding Thompson for a 3 on the next possession.
Durant’s dunk at 2:12 made it 108-105. Curry had a steal and drive with 1:51 left but couldn’t convert, then missed a 3 as Golden State kept possession. Durant missed from deep the next time down.
The Warriors lost only twice total at Oracle Arena in both their 2015 championship year and again in the 73-win season that followed, then just five times at home on the way to another title last season.
“We’re really close to being ourselves,” Curry said. “For the most part those little things are keeping us from really opening up the gates in games like tonight where we had a pretty comfortable lead in the third quarter.”
Klay Thompson scored 29 points and became the 11th player in franchise history to eclipse 9,000 career points. Durant wound up with 28 points and Curry 27.
Stanley Johnson’s dunk with 6:56 left put the Pistons up 98-88.
“When our intensity and energy rises on defense I think we’re a pretty good team,” Johnson said.
Golden State looked efficient again initially, passing well and making better decisions, but it was sloppy down the stretch. The Warriors shot 57.1 percent with 29 assists and were at a 63.5-percent clip midway through the third quarter before allowing the Pistons back in the game.
Reggie Jackson scored 18 of his 22 points in the first half and Bradley made five 3-pointers for the Pistons, who impressed on the second night of a SoCal-NorCal back-to-back.
Detroit beat the Clippers 95-87 on Saturday to hand Los Angeles its first defeat and leaving no more undefeated NBA teams.
With 11 blocks, Golden State has gone seven straight games with at least seven blocks.