Final: That does it folks! Good night.
Final: Josh Smith led the Pistons with 18 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and three steals. Jordan Hill led the Lakers with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Final: The Lakers improve to 5-13. The Pistons, who are now on a nine-game losing streak, drop to 3-15.
Final: Kobe finished with 12 points and 13 assists to go along with 10 turnovers. There were some good parts in Kobe's game and some bad.
Final: Pistons shooting woes continue, as they shot 36.7 percent from the field.
Final: Lakers have beaten the Pistons five times in the row.
Final: This wasn't a pretty one in the end, but the Lakers will take the win.
Final: Lakers remain undefeated against the Eastern Conference teams, winning their fourth one.
4th Quarter (:00): Lakers - 106 Pistons - 96.
4th Quarter (:19): Lakers - 104 Pistons - 96.
4th Quarter (:19): Datome scores a lay up off a steal under the Pistons own basket. It's the foul game now.
4th Quarter (:45): Lakers - 103 Pistons - 94.
4th Quarter (1:06): Off a steal, Jerebko gets a dunk. It's a seven-point game.
4th Quarter (1:18): Gigi Datome hits a three.
4th Quarter (1:35): Wesley Johnson knocks down a three, and that might do it.
4th Quarter (2:27): Lakers - 98 Pistons - 89.
4th Quarter (2:55): Lin dishes to Boozer for a lay in deep in the paint.
4th Quarter (3:20): Another turnover by Kobe. He's got nine.
4th Quarter (3:34): Lakers - 96 Pistons - 86.
4th Quarter (3:50): Jordan Hill with another one. He's got eight straight points for the Lakers.
4th Quarter (4:37): Monroe makes a nice spin move to score. Back-and-forth we go.
4th Quarter (4:55): Kobe finds Hill for the duece.
4th Quarter (5:10): Augustin drains a jumper on the other end.
4th Quarter (5:24): Hill responds back.
4th Quarter (5:39): Jerebko scores another. It's an eight-point game.
4th Quarter (5:55): Lakers - 90 Pistons - 80.
4th Quarter (6:23): Good high-low action by Boozer and Hill for the score.
4th Quarter (6:39): Lakers - 88 Pistons - 78.
4th Quarter (6:39): Monroe is fouled, and could cut the lead down to 9. Lakers going back with the entire starting lineup.
4th Quarter (7:17): Augustin takes Sacre to the hole for a lay up. It's down to an 11-point game.
4th Quarter (7:51): Greg Monroe scores a running hook.
4th Quarter (8:06): Lakers - 88 Pistons - 73.
4th Quarter (8:34): Gigi Datome floats in a two.
4th Quarter (9:22): Lakers - 87 Pistons - 71.
4th Quarter (9:36): Couple of excellent hustle plays by the Lakers bench that results into a Young three.
4th Quarter (10:25): Jerebko drills a three. The Pistons seem to have waved the white flag, though. They have dug deep into their bench.
4th Quarter (11:14): Ellington hits a three to make sure the Lakers don't let their lead slip.
4th Quarter (11:29): The Pistons are slowly trying to crawl back into this game with costless throws.
3rd Quarter (:00): Lakers - 81 Pistons - 65.
3rd Quarter (:44): Butler with a step back jumper and foul. He hits the costless throw.
3rd Quarter (1:59): Young hits all three costless throws.
3rd Quarter (1:59): Young gets fouled on the three. He is so good at drawing fouls on his long distance shots.
3rd Quarter (2:25): Lakers - 78 Pistons - 58.
3rd Quarter (2:44): Kobe wows the crowd with a cross over, but misses the difficult reverse layup but Davis tips it in.
3rd Quarter (3:19): Young hits a long ball. Refs will check to see if it is indeed a three.
3rd Quarter (4:22): Meanwhile, the Pistons keep shooting costless throws on the other end.
3rd Quarter (4:33): Jordan Hill with an offensive rebound and put back.
3rd Quarter (4:48): Lakers - 70 Pistons - 54.
3rd Quarter (5:21): Kobe with another jumper.
3rd Quarter (5:50): Kobe heating up. He hits a three, and the Lakers all of a sudden up 16.
3rd Quarter (6:30): Lakers - 61 Pistons - 52.
3rd Quarter (6:37): Stan Van Gundy now gets a techical.
3rd Quarter (7:26): Kobe finally scores his first points of the game.
3rd Quarter (8:05): Lakers - 58 Pistons - 51.
3rd Quarter (8:31): Josh Smith picks up a technical.
3rd Quarter (9:07): Bryant hits Lin with a pass, and Lin hits the three. Kobe with nine assists.
3rd Quarter (9:46): Another bad pass by Kobe. He's got 5 turnovers and is scoreless.
3rd Quarter (10:09): Singler pockets a corner three ball to answer.
3rd Quarter (10:42): Johnson hits a corner three. Lakers up 5.
3rd Quarter (11:09): Jordan Hill with a beautiful up and under move for the score.
3rd Quarter (11:27): Smith answers on the other end with a hoop and foul.
3rd Quarter (11:45): Boozer gets the Lakers started in the second half.
Halftime: Josh Smith has 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
Halftime: Kobe Bryant surprisingly has 0 points but he has dished out five assists.
2nd Quarter (:00): Lakers - 46 Pistons - 45.
2nd Quarter (:05): Kobe with a nice dish to find Hill.
2nd Quarter (:24): Butler knocks down a three off a good find by Smith.
2nd Quarter (:59): Johnson trhows it down with one hand and draws the foul. Incredible!
2nd Quarter (1:23): Kobe finds Johnson for a corner three.
2nd Quarter (1:38): Drummond working the glass as well, as he tips the ball to himself a few times and gathers the rebound and scores.
2nd Quarter (2:12): Smith with a banker on the other end. He's had a solid game with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
2nd Quarter (2:31): Wesley Johnson hits a mid-range jumper out of the timeout.
2nd Quarter (2:46): Lakers - 37 Pistons - 35.
2nd Quarter (3:02): Hill working the glass, gets his own miss, and lays it in.
2nd Quarter (3:41): Finally a good feed by Bryant to Hill for a dunk.
2nd Quarter (4:12): Boozer attacks the paint in transition for an easy hoop.
2nd Quarter (4:44): Augustin takes it all the way to the hole for a lay up.
2nd Quarter (4:58): Kobe has yet to hit a field goal.
2nd Quarter (5:35): Butler drills a three and gives the Pistons a two-point lead.
2nd Quarter (5:49): Another turnover by Kobe who is completely struggling.
2nd Quarter (6:24): Caldwell-Pope slices the defense and gets to the rim for an easy lay in.
2nd Quarter (6:41): Lakers - 31 Pistons - 28.
2nd Quarter (7:31): Off a steal, Ellington gets a fast break lay up.
2nd Quarter (7:59): Smith gets an easy tip in after a Butler miss.
2nd Quarter (8:33): Nick Young with a brilliant move by faking Caldwell-Pope and drawing a foul on him and hitting the shot.
2nd Quarter (8:47): Lakers - 26 Pistons - 23.
2nd Quarter (8:47): Josh Smith hits another lay up and this time draws the foul. Will look to complete a three-point play after a timeout.
2nd Quarter (9:07): Sacre quickly answers with a costless throw line jumper.
2nd Quarter (9:25): Smith finally scores for the Pistons to stop their drought.
2nd Quarter (9:50): The Pistons are ice cold. That's not too surprising.
2nd Quarter (10:40): Ellington hits another jumper.
2nd Quarter (10:56): This Piston team does actually get good looks on offense. They just miss.
2nd Quarter (11:46): Ellington swishes home a long two to start the second quarter.
1st Quarter (:00): Lakers - 19 Pistons - 19. Low scoring game so far.
1st Quarter (:16): Young hits a jumper and draws a foul. The Lakers were in bit of a drought, but Young hits the costless throw and ties the game up.
1st Quarter (1:40): Caron Butler hits a step back jumper.
1st Quarter (2:06): So far, it's a slow offensive game on both ends.
1st Quarter (2:21): Lakers - 16 Pistons - 17.
1st Quarter (2:29): Lakers are missing so many makeable shots. Kobe picks up his second foul.
1st Quarter (3:54): Josh Smith with a flat jump hook that rolls in.
1st Quarter (4:16): Nick Young drains a three.
1st Quarter (5:09): Another bad pass by Kobe, which leads to a Jennings lay up on the other end.
1st Quarter (5:50): Lakers - 13 Pistons - 10.
1st Quarter (6:13): Jennings with a good back door cut for the lay in and that stops the bleeding for Detroit.
1st Quarter (6:42): Boozer with a nice dream shake-like move for a fall away jumper. Lakers on a 9-0 run to take a 5-point lead.
1st Quarter (7:22): Hill is on the boards as well with his usual flat footed jumper.
1st Quarter (8:08): Lin tees up a three and drills it.
1st Quarter (8:17): So do the Pistons.
1st Quarter (8:38): Kobe has a handful of turnovers already.
1st Quarter (9:36): Caldwell-Pope hits a mid-range jumper.
1st Quarter (10:05): Six paint points for the Pistons already, as Singler gets an easy lay up.
1st Quarter (10:25): Another score for Boozer, this time in the paint.
1st Quarter (10:52): Boozer gets the Lakers going with a face up jumper.
1st Quarter (11:13): Then an easy lay in for Josh Smith. Too easy.
1st Quarter (11:46): First basket of the game, Jennings an alley-oop to Drummond for a dunk.
1st Quarter (12:00): We are underway!
Greg Monroe will be coming off the bench for the second straight game.
The Lakers will need to come out strong in this one and take out the Pistons early because they have a tougher game coming up tomorrow in Washington against the Wizards.
The Pistons haven't beaten the Lakers since the 2011-2012 season. They will look to end their losing streak against the Lakers.
Kobe skipped shootaround, but he will be available to play tonight. He sat out to rest up a bit.
It's amazing what moving the ball around does for the Lakers. It cannot be the Kobe show. When Kobe gets his teammates involved, things go much better for them. However, his teammates do have to knock down their shots.
The down part about this game is that both teams do not move the ball around too well. There is too much one-on-one play, as both teams rank bottom 10 in assists per game. Though, the Lakers do have their moments, like Sunday evening against the Raptors where the Lakers handed out 24 assists as a team, 12 coming from Kobe.
This could be a very winnable game for the Lakers. They just cannot let a miserable team find their confidence and will have to bury this team right from the beginning to make sure they don't gain any momentum.
Los Angeles Lakers - Detroit Pistons Score
Another area of inconsistency for the Pistons has been their bench. They are ranked 24th in bench scoring because they have inconsistent scoreres. Meanwhile, the Lakers bench isn't much better, but they have a trusted scorer in Nick Young, who is coming off of a 20-point game.
The Pistons are on an eight-game losing streak. They are going to come out at home as the most desperate team. The Lakers will have to realize that and come out with a sense of urgency. The Lakers are, after all, on a three-game road trip and would like to get started on a positive note.
The Pistons' big frontcourt is the matchup the Lakers will need to worry about most. Andre Drummond could be a handful to keep off the glass. He does a good job of making it one and done on the defensive end and is always around the rim on the offensive end. It would be amusing to see who the Lakers put Carlos Boozer on. If Boozer defends Greg Monroe, then Monroe may look to be aggressive. If Boozer is going to stick Drummond, he will have to do a good job of boxing out.
Jeremy Lin has been pretty consistent for the Lakers of late. He will have his hands full in this game trying to contain the quick and streaky Brandon Jennings. Jennings' scoring has been something the Pistons have tried to count on, but they have had a tough time closing out games, as have the Lakers.
This will be a battle between the worst offense against the worst defense in the NBA. Which side of the ball will win out first? We will have to wait and see. It will definitely be interesting to look.
Kobe has been phenomenal, which raises the question; who is going to contain him? It will be tough to ask second-year man Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to stop Kobe. Also, Josh Smith is a little too slow to be able to stay in front of Kobe, so the Pistons may have a tough time limiting Kobe from scoring.
The Lakers are coming off an impressive win over the Toronto Raptors, and Kobe Bryant is coming off an incredible night, where he recorded a triple-double, becoming the only player in NBA history to score 30 points, grab 10 rebounds, and hand out 10 assists at age 36. He also became the only player to have 30,000-plus points and 6,000-plus assists.
The Lakers are 3-0 against Eastern Conference teams. They beat the Atlanta Hawks on the road, and the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors at home. Maybe it's a weird coincidence, but the Lakers seem to have an easier time against Eastern Conference teams.
The Pistons are also solid at taking care of the ball, ranking number nine in turnovers per game, averaging 13.2. They are also really good at rebounding, averaging 43.9 rebounds per game, which is eighth best in the league.
Despite Detroit's offensive woes, they have done a better job of shooting the three this season, and that is something that Stan Van Gundy brings to the table as Head Coach.
Thanks to their poor shooting from the field, the Pistons are ranked 28th in points per game, averaging just 91.9. The only explanation for Detroit's terrible offense is that the shots are simply not going in. That's something that Coach Stan Van Gundy has been saying in interviews. Their offensive problems are not as complex as they seem to be.
It's been tough for the Pistons, as they continue to struggle to shoot the ball. They shoot 41.2 percent from the field as a team, which is dead last in the NBA. That shooting mark is surprisingly worst than the Philadelphia 76ers. The Pistons' offensive struggles are clearly evident, and the Lakers should be able to take full advantage of that, just like every other team that has faced Detroit.
Both teams are struggling badly right now and a win will help them very much. The Pistons have only gathered three wins in 17 games played. The Lakers have gathered four in the same amount of games.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to VAVEL_USA's Live of the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Detroit Pistons.