Pistons 90 - Lakers 89

The Lakers began their 9 game road trip in Detroit and the game was what the great Chick Hearn would call a heart break. The Pistons went up 29-22 at the end of the first quarter and then really let the Lakers have it in the second quarter by taking a 17 point lead. The Lakers were able to chip at that big lead in the second quarter though to allow them to have a chance in the game still and trailed by 7 points at halftime with a 53-46 deficit. Then it was Kobe Bryant time in the third quarter as Detroit could not do anything about Bryant. Kobe was scoring from the inside, from the outside and helped give the Lakers a 62-58 lead with a little over 4 minutes left in the third. At one point Kobe Bryant scored 10 straight points in the quarter. St the end of the third the Lakers had a 5 point cushion 72-67. In the fourth quarter both teams kept the game close and Kobe continued his great play ending the game with 39 points and 10 rebounds. He had a strange triple double though also getting a career high 11 turnovers in the game. The game went down to the wire with the Lakers up by 2 points with 16 seconds left in the game. The Pistons had the ball and R. Wallace missed his shot but the Lakers were not able to get the rebound. I know I've said this many, many times but, oh how we miss Andrew Bynum. Detroit's clutch offensive rebound made way for T. Prince who got the pass in the corner with just over 4 seconds left and drilled a three pointer in front of Lamar Odom giving Detroit a 1 point lead and the Lakers one more chance. The Lakers weren't able to get the ball to Kobe for the last shot and Odom was forced to shot the ball but the shot didn't draw iron and the Lakers have lost 4 out of their last 5 games. This was a good game but waa another game the Lakers should have won. The Lakers again showed that they can beat the best teams in the league, just a few mistakes in this game cost us the game.