Plus, Detroit wins easy and Dallas wins close
It’s a bit of a shame how things played out for TNT; they were so close to getting gems in both of their nationally televised games. Cavs-Lakers was just a six-point game when Anthony Davis, who’s tallied 99 points over his last two games, left the game with “flu-like symptoms” including a 101 degree fever.
It should’ve been a glorious homecoming for the King against a revamped Cavs squad that has maybe a better overall roster than LeBron ever had when he was there. Instead, it looked like a Lakers squad more akin to LeBron’s early Cleveland years.
Donovan Mitchell scored 43 points (17-27 FG) while adding six rebounds and five assists in 40 minutes (+21). Two more starters contributed 20+, including Jarrett Allen, who made his return from a lower back contusion that kept him out five games. Allen scored 14 of his 24 in the first quarter, including this alley-oop from Mitchell:
Donovan Mitchell to Jarrett Allen for the JAM ‼️
— NBA (@NBA) December 7, 2022
Allen has a game-high 14 PTS after Q1 on TNT. pic.twitter.com/1oTSkPlS1j
LeBron finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds, but LA was unable to overcome Davis playing just eight, mostly-ineffective minutes. No time for the Lakers to sit on this one either, as they have a back end of a back-to-back coming up against Toronto on Wednesday with AD’s status still up in the air.
The Pistons were without franchise cornerstone Cade Cunningham, up against a red-hot Tyler Herro (21 points on seven shots in the first half), and were down 50-47 at the break.
However, Bojan Bogdanovic came out firing in the second half with 28 points after just three in the first. Key bench piece Alec Burks added 13 of his 18 in the second half as well. Burks missed 13 of Detroit’s first 14 games but has been so good for their bench, averaging 14.2 points in just 20.5 minutes per game.
The Pistons, who are now 1.5 games back from the worst record in basketball, have a chance to start just their second winning streak of the season when they face the West’s #2 seed, New Orleans, on Wednesday.
Speaking as someone who’s watched Luka Doncic carve up his favorite team countless times, Denver played inspiring defense in the final few minutes of the game as they held Dallas to just one made field goal in the final four minutes. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope played a big part in that, like in this isolation possession out top against Doncic:
KCP: shooting 46% from three and doing stuff like this on defense. He'd fit on every team in the league. pic.twitter.com/CP1j1xA07v
— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) December 7, 2022
Eventually, Dallas found a broken defensive possession where Dorian Finney-Smith cashed an open look from the top of the key, stalling an 11-0 Nuggets run that saw Denver take a lead with 37 seconds to go. Dallas closed it out with some back and forth free throws, helped by a big missed free throw by Nikola Jokic.
The third straight loss for Denver leaves them teetering on the edge of the play-in, just 1.0 game ahead of Dallas, who’s up to the #7 spot after winning their last three.
