Hunter Patterson

After the Pistons’ 14-win season, Cade Cunningham had FOMO watching the playoffs. He texted someone he knew would understand. I spoke with them both for an exclusive on how that text sparked Detroit’s two-year turnaround: nytimes.com/athletic/7196374…

J.B. on Cade and Duncan’s rough shooting night: “Give (the Lakers)credit, I thought they did a really good job of crowding them and not letting them get the space they need. Every time they were attacking there were two or three bodies. … My responsibility to help them more.”

J.B. on the Pistons’ slow starts this season: “I’ve gotta go back and take a look at it, see what the cause of it is. There was a time when our starts were really, really good. So we need to go back, compare the two and see what we’re doing to get better at those starts.”

Lakers beat the Pistons 121-116. Detroit now falls to 6-3 after losing back-to-back games. Daniss led the Pistons with 31 points on 8/15 from 3 and was a +22. Huerter added 24 points, 5 assists, 5 blocks and 5 rebounds. Back at it tomorrow against the Wizards.

Daniss Jenkins’ 31 points are a new career high. His previous was 30 against the Lakers.

Kessler has seven offensive rebounds and the Lakers now have 19 second-chance points.

Duncan has thrived this season when the Pistons need a big bucket and he came through again. Lakers up 102-99 with 3:16 left.

That was a dot from Huerter to find Cade in transition. Cade’s at the line with a chance to tie the game at 90 with 9:14 remaining.

Daniss enters the fourth a +18 in a game the Pistons are currently losing by seven.

Pistons won the second and third quarters 67-50 but still trail 88-81 entering the fourth. Reaves has a game-high 32 points. Daniss is leading Detroit with 25 points on 7/11 from 3.

Duncan dunked that like someone who knew they’d be clowned if they went for the layup.

The atmosphere at LCA makes games feel closer than they are sometimes. I looked at the scoreboard after that last 3 from Duncan and thought it was closer than 84-73.

Austin Reaves is just hitting some difficult shots right now. Jalen Rose stood up and tried to play defense courtside on that last bucket. He’s up to 32 points on 63/100/100 splits.

Lakers lead 61-48 going into the half. Daniss is the only Piston to score in double figures thus far, with 22 points on 6/7 from 3. LA has done a good job of forcing the ball out of Cade’s hands. He’s scoreless on 0/4 with 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 turnovers.

Quentin Grimes plays like he just chugged a Red Bull right before checking in. Not always out of control, but he plays pretty fast.

Pistons are winning the second quarter 19-7 and have trimmed the Lakers’ lead to 45-33. Daniss is leading Detroit with 10 points off the bench on 2/2 from 3. He’s also a team-high +8.

Ron entered tonight shooting 6/12 from long range over his last three and he just knocked down his first attempt of the game.

The reaction J.B. had to Paul trying to throw a lob to himself was priceless. He was in disbelief.

Huerter entered tonight shooting 37.5% from 3 and he’s 3/3 from distance so far tonight. He’s looking much more confident in his jumper this season and he’s playing solid defensively.

Lakers up 38-14 at the end of the first. LA has 20 paint points, 17 points off turnovers and 16 bench points. Detroit hasn’t had any consistent source of offense and stops have been hard to come by.

Lakers have 17 points off turnovers while the Pistons have 9 points in total. Not great for Detroit.