Even though playing with the animosity of being on the road, the Pistons made it two out of two wins against the Los Angeles Lakers. They didn’t require a massive performance from Cade Cunningham. The catalyst to their victory was simply playing hard and not giving up on any possession. The Purple and Gold seemed to feel the pressure from the Pistons’ vintage defense. The only man who seemed to be unbothered was the oldest man on the pitch. LeBron James decided to tackle their suffocating intensity by matching their tempo.

James led the scoring for the game and always seemed to have a trick up his sleeve to counter the Pistons’ on-ball pressure. However, the Lakers in general seemed to struggle. Anthony Davis could only log 19 points and no one from the bench even got to double-digits. Likewise, the media wondered whether Detroit’s physicality got to the Lakers.

In LeBron James’ view though, they simply had to go beat for beat.

“Just got to match the physicality with physicality. Can’t speak for nobody but myself when it comes to that. I’m a football player so I don’t mind physicality to be honest,” he told the reporters. As he said that though, the four-time MVP was wiping blood off his body, probably a result of the Pistons’ defensive schemes. But even that doesn’t rattle James.

“Perfectly fine for me to be honest but as a team we got to be better. Just be stronger that’s all,” the NBA’s all-time leading scorer said. 

In particular, the fourth quarter proved just how unflappable LeBron James was to the Pistons’ defense. At one point, they even took an 11-point lead, which the Akron Hammer came very close to extinguishing himself. Out of the 22 points the Lakers scored in that quarter, 14 came from James as he scrapped and made a path toward the rim for his buckets.

How do the Lakers tackle physicality?

LeBron James seemed to be the only one looking to overpower the Pistons with his physical prowess. However, is that a fix the rest of the Lakers can implement? It’s not that simple. While James does feel being “stronger” is the key, he doesn’t expect his teammates to be just as physical as him.

Rather, he wants the Purple and Gold to be better organized. His way of tackling such defenses is to polish the teams’ schemes. “We do it as a team. You got to help guys get open. Guys are pressuring the ball, you got to help guys screen better you got to use your triple threat,” he said about the anecdotes.

That’s where the Lakers lacked not just tonight, but have done so over the past few games. This was the third game in their last five that the Lakers turned the ball over more than 15 times. In the nine times that’s happened this season, they have lost six games. Tonight, the Pistons used these errors to score 28 points, taking control of the game by continuing to bound the ball handlers.

The Pistons also navigated well around their big men setting strong screens. Paul Reed in particular came through with six screen assists.. Detroit scored 38 points in such an action, while the Lakers only got 27. The fix for the recent issues with ball security are characterized by a number of factors.

It is something that requires detailed attention due to the high volume of turnovers in recent games. However, given it’s an anomaly for the Lakers, it shouldn’t take long to make the changes, but just requires intricate work. In terms of their defensive effort, the Purple and Gold are showing steady improvements. It’s the offense that has been lackadaisical.

However, with mindslike JJ Redick and LeBron James working to fix them, it shouldn’t be a big worry for the Lakers.