It's just March, and the media and fans are looking forward to this pinnacle showdown between East and West. However, judging from the direction of the media, they still prefer the Lakers, after all, the star of the Pistons is too dim compared to the Lakers, and if it weren't for their style change this year, they might have received even less support. As such, the two sides simply don't have the same order of magnitude of support, and the only good thing for the Pistons is that this game will be played at Auburn Hills Palace.

In addition, the Pistons have a much better schedule than the Lakers, and before that, they only need to go to Orlando on March 9 to play the Magic before they can start preparing for the game against the Lakers. And the Lakers, although not back-to-back, only have one day to prepare, and at the same time, they also need to fly from the far West Coast to Detroit, which is quite a difficult journey.

Zen Master naturally feels a headache, but for any NBA head coach, this is inevitable, and the Lakers are not very lucky to use a tired division after a long journey against a strong opponent who is waiting for work. But despite this, Zen Master is still full of confidence in his team, and the reason why he persuaded the team to bring in Payton and Malone last offseason was to go all out for a championship this season, and the Pistons are also their potential opponents.

Although the regular season clash cannot determine the situation of the playoffs, if you can beat the Pistons in this game, even if you meet in the playoffs, you will have a certain psychological advantage. And for the Lakers, the fortunate thing is the game before the Pistons, their home opponent is currently the third from the bottom in the West, the Zen master can completely control the playing time of several key players in a planned way to prepare for the next game against the Pistons.

That's what he thinks, and that's what he does. Against a weak Warriors, the Lakers attacked aggressively from the start of the game and took a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, they continued to chase hard, but the Zen master only gave Payton and Malone half a quarter of time to play, and they needed more rest than Kobe Bryant and O'Neal.

Despite this, the Lakers still stretched the margin to more than 20 points at halftime, which is also the goal set for them by the Zen master before the game. The 20+ lead was enough for the Lakers to wave casually in the second half, and the Zen master simply dismantled the "OK combination" and let Kobe Bryant play the third quarter with role players, and O'Neal was responsible for the fourth quarter, so that both sides had enough rest. With the Lakers' superhuman strength, they easily beat the Warriors 112-95 at home, Kobe Bryant and O'Neal only played just over 30 minutes, Payton and Malone didn't even play more than 25 minutes, obviously saving room for the next game. The Zen master did not delay, and immediately after the game, he flew to Detroit with the entire Lakers team to prepare for the game against the Pistons.

And in Auburn Hills Palace, the Pistons have been waiting for the whole team, and it didn't take much effort to beat the Magic two days ago, and that game completely became Wade's personal show, he scored a game-high 32 points in a rookie game, while also scoring 4 rebounds and 7 assists, and the veterans were happy to hand over the stage to him, and none of the starting five played more than 30 minutes.

And after flying back from Orlando, they got two days off, and they had recovered from the hard work they had worked so hard before. For the Lakers, a formidable opponent, everyone is gearing up to give them a little color, as the league's most famous grassroots army, the Pistons players are most disgusted by teams like the Lakers who have nothing to do and rely on money to pile up stars.

Brown attaches great importance to this game, because the two sides are currently separated by 2 wins, and if they lose, then the Lakers will chase only 1 game left, and they may overtake at any time. Although winning the regular season does not mean winning 100% of the championship, it is still important to be able to maintain home-court advantage, and it is a must for the Pistons to win this game, which can be regarded as giving them more confidence.

The Lakers' offense is indeed sharp, and their four stars are all single-handed, and this time Brown still plans to use defense to grind down the opponent's momentum at first, and then use the bench lineup to rush up and establish a lead in one fell swoop.

But when the game officially began, Brown realized that he was taking it for granted. It's okay to say on the outside, Payton is old and weak, just let Billups, who is not weak in confrontation ability, follow, Kobe Bryant will hand over to Prince, the number one gate on the outside, but the inside Pistons are at a disadvantage, although Big Ben is the top in the league in terms of frame protection ability, but Thomas is still powerless in the face of Ma Long, the devil muscleman, not to mention that Ma Long still has a hand-to-hand distance shot, and he was directly beaten to the ground when he came up.

The Zen master also saw the advantage of the Lakers on the inside, he stood on the sidelines and shouted a few words at the other players, signaling them to give the ball to Malone and O'Neal on the inside to play, and wait until the inside line opened up the situation before driving the outside shots.

This made Brown feel very helpless, and now the Lakers' interior line is a hard bridge and hard horse style of play, not to compare skills and strategies with you, but to rely on personal strength to directly crush the past. Big Ben may be able to carry O'Neal, but Malone is not something that Thomas can withstand in the low post, and the Pistons' bench interior is Dior and Haywood, and in terms of strength, it is not Marlone's opponent.

Before the two sides sent out the bench lineup, Malone was the brightest star on the court, and his back-to-back singles and mid-range shots made Thomas simply lose the confidence to play against him. Malone scored 12 points and 5 rebounds in just 8 minutes and 24 seconds in the entire first quarter, and was the only player on both teams to score in double figures.

However, Billups and Hamilton's firepower from the outside didn't put the Pistons behind too much, and combined with Big Ben's protection of the rebound, the Pistons only trailed by four points at 22-26. Although Malone's outburst surprised Brown, the four-point gap was completely within his acceptable range, because now the two sides are competing for the strength of the bench lineup.

The addition of Malone and Payton certainly put the Lakers' original two starters on the bench, but on the whole, their bench players are not particularly strong, and the reason why they can gain an advantage in the competition is largely because the Zen master likes to let Kobe Bryant play with the benches in the last few minutes of the first quarter, and there will be no mistakes with Kobe Bryant in charge.

However, this time, neither the Zen master nor Kobe Bryant expected that they would meet a fierce opponent!