ducks
01-29-2006, 10:56 AM
LA Lakers (23-19) at Detroit (36-5)
Preview - Box Score - Recap
Game Info: 6:30 pm EST Sun Jan 29, 2006
TV: ESPN Add to Calendar
Buy Tickets
Ron Harper helped the Chicago Bulls set an NBA record for victories in 1995-96. Ten years later, he hopes to be a part of history again, this time with the Detroit Pistons.
Owners of the league's best record, the Pistons seek their 11th straight win when they host the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Pistons' start is the fourth-best in league history through 41 games, trailing only the 38-3 record by the Bulls in 1995-96 and the Lakers in 1971-72, and the 37-4 mark by Philadelphia in 1966-67.
Chicago finished 72-10 that season and Harper, now an assistant coach with the Pistons, started 80 games and averaged 7.4 points.
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"The worst thing that any team can do is think about their record," said Harper, who also played for the Lakers on their 1999-00 and 2000-01 championship teams. "The minute you start thinking more than one game ahead, you will start losing. We never even thought about 70 wins in Chicago until we got to around 65."
Pistons coach Flip Saunders, whose best mark in nine-plus seasons with Minnesota was 58-24 before he took over for Larry Brown in July, has helped Detroit improve a season after it reached the NBA Finals for the second straight time.
"When you play 82 games, it's tough to play at an unbelievably high level for all 82," Saunders said. "Right now, we're playing at a high level -- our level right now is where other people's mountains are at."
The Pistons, who defeated the Lakers in five games in the 2004 NBA Finals, have won five straight against Los Angeles and are 8-2 in the last 10 meetings. Detroit won both meetings last season by a combined 43 points.
In Detroit's 95-89 victory over Memphis on Friday, Chauncey Billups scored 10 of his 34 points during a 97-second span in the fourth quarter, including four free throws down the stretch to give the Pistons the lead with 2:27 left.
Since scoring a season-low two points against New York on Jan. 19, Billups has averaged 27.0 points and 9.0 assists in four games.
"It doesn't amaze me," Tayshaun Prince said of Billups. "It doesn't amaze anybody on our team, because we know what he's capable of doing."
Billups has averaged 16.5 points in 25 games against the Lakers.
Los Angeles has won consecutive games and is 5-2 since a 113-103 loss to Portland on Jan. 11. At 23-19, the Lakers are four games over .500 for the third time this season. They haven't been five games over the break-even mark since they were 24-19 on Feb. 1.
Five days after he scored 81 points, the second-highest point total in NBA history, Kobe Bryant totaled 30 in the Lakers' 106-105 overtime win against Golden State on Friday. Bryant had just five points through three quarters before scoring 16 in the fourth and nine in overtime.
"They came out and they zoned up and they trapped and they doubled, and we just continued to move the ball," Bryant said. "It took me three quarters to kind of get the rhythm down on what they were trying to do defensively so I could go into attack mode in the fourth quarter, where I was able to start attacking the basket a little bit and get something going."
Bryant, leading the league in scoring at 35.8 points per game, went 7-of-22 from the field and made 14 of 16 free throws.
He has averaged 20.3 points in 20 games against the Pistons, but has reached the 30-point mark just three times.
Preview - Box Score - Recap
Game Info: 6:30 pm EST Sun Jan 29, 2006
TV: ESPN Add to Calendar
Buy Tickets
Ron Harper helped the Chicago Bulls set an NBA record for victories in 1995-96. Ten years later, he hopes to be a part of history again, this time with the Detroit Pistons.
Owners of the league's best record, the Pistons seek their 11th straight win when they host the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Pistons' start is the fourth-best in league history through 41 games, trailing only the 38-3 record by the Bulls in 1995-96 and the Lakers in 1971-72, and the 37-4 mark by Philadelphia in 1966-67.
Chicago finished 72-10 that season and Harper, now an assistant coach with the Pistons, started 80 games and averaged 7.4 points.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The worst thing that any team can do is think about their record," said Harper, who also played for the Lakers on their 1999-00 and 2000-01 championship teams. "The minute you start thinking more than one game ahead, you will start losing. We never even thought about 70 wins in Chicago until we got to around 65."
Pistons coach Flip Saunders, whose best mark in nine-plus seasons with Minnesota was 58-24 before he took over for Larry Brown in July, has helped Detroit improve a season after it reached the NBA Finals for the second straight time.
"When you play 82 games, it's tough to play at an unbelievably high level for all 82," Saunders said. "Right now, we're playing at a high level -- our level right now is where other people's mountains are at."
The Pistons, who defeated the Lakers in five games in the 2004 NBA Finals, have won five straight against Los Angeles and are 8-2 in the last 10 meetings. Detroit won both meetings last season by a combined 43 points.
In Detroit's 95-89 victory over Memphis on Friday, Chauncey Billups scored 10 of his 34 points during a 97-second span in the fourth quarter, including four free throws down the stretch to give the Pistons the lead with 2:27 left.
Since scoring a season-low two points against New York on Jan. 19, Billups has averaged 27.0 points and 9.0 assists in four games.
"It doesn't amaze me," Tayshaun Prince said of Billups. "It doesn't amaze anybody on our team, because we know what he's capable of doing."
Billups has averaged 16.5 points in 25 games against the Lakers.
Los Angeles has won consecutive games and is 5-2 since a 113-103 loss to Portland on Jan. 11. At 23-19, the Lakers are four games over .500 for the third time this season. They haven't been five games over the break-even mark since they were 24-19 on Feb. 1.
Five days after he scored 81 points, the second-highest point total in NBA history, Kobe Bryant totaled 30 in the Lakers' 106-105 overtime win against Golden State on Friday. Bryant had just five points through three quarters before scoring 16 in the fourth and nine in overtime.
"They came out and they zoned up and they trapped and they doubled, and we just continued to move the ball," Bryant said. "It took me three quarters to kind of get the rhythm down on what they were trying to do defensively so I could go into attack mode in the fourth quarter, where I was able to start attacking the basket a little bit and get something going."
Bryant, leading the league in scoring at 35.8 points per game, went 7-of-22 from the field and made 14 of 16 free throws.
He has averaged 20.3 points in 20 games against the Pistons, but has reached the 30-point mark just three times.