Los Angeles Lakers vs. Detroit Pistons

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The night after a rivalry game is the strangest ticket in basketball. The building is still faintly exhausted, the crowd is a fraction of the size, and whatever happened twenty-four hours earlier is sitting over the whole evening unmentioned. It is also, reliably, the best value weekend night of the season: everybody spent their money and their enthusiasm the night before, so the seats are reachable and the queues are gone. Detroit is a rebuilding opponent with young players worth watching precisely because nobody has decided about them yet. A Friday tip with no occasion attached and a half-empty lower bowl is a genuinely lovely way to watch basketball. Come the night after rather than the night of, and spend the difference on sitting somewhere you can see faces from. Worth knowing before you plan: the two games fall on consecutive nights, so if you want both, the second one is the one to spend less on and enjoy more.