Pistons vs. Lakers final score: Pistons lose fourth straight ugly, 97-85

It looked like it might just be an ugly win for the Pistons when the bench handed the game off to the starters with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. They took over with a 72-69 lead, but the offense was off all night for the first unit and it only got worse down the stretch.

The starters let the lead turn into a 9 point deficit before Stan Van Gundy pulled Reggie Jackson for Spencer Dinwiddie, who had outplayed Reggie all night. But but Dinwiddie at his best isn't Jackson at his best, able to carry a team to a dramatic come-from-behind-win, and the Pistons coasted to their fourth straight loss.

Detroit took their lumps over the six-game Western Conference road trip, finishing the travel 2-4. After a hot start, the Pistons are back to a .500 record.

The loss is probably most disappointing because the Lakers were thoroughly unimpressive. Honestly, this is a team that runs isolation plays for Ron, excuse me, Metta World Peace. The home team couldn't hit shots, turned the ball over prodigiously, but still controlled the game throughout. They're the second team that has picked up their second win against the Pistons in the past week. More plainly, the Pistons continue to lose to bad teams.

Detroit's offense was led by Andre Drummond's 18 shots, and both the team offense and Drummond's were terrible. Drummond is in a rough stretch on offense. Despite averaging 16 points per game over the past four, he's shooting only 45 percent true shooting (which takes into account field goals and free throws). He finished with 17 points on 8-18 shooting and 17 rebounds - despite his struggles, still an incredible line.

The whole starting unit shot just 32 percent on the night. It's tough to pinpoint who played the worst, except Jackson received a strong juxtaposition from Dinwiddie. While Jackson couldn't get anything going offensively, struggling to a 4-11 shooting line with just 3 assists and 5 turnovers, Dinwiddie had one of the best games of his career.

Sitting behind a struggling Steve Blake for most of the season, Dinwiddie stepped into the rotation and put up 17 points on 6-9 shooting with 4 assists and only 1 turnover. He also seemed to form a nice pick and roll combination with Aron Baynes, one that was looked for out of Blake since early this season. Around this duo was the only time that the team was able to consistently put points on the board.

The game brought to light a few of the warts that the Pistons have covered through their early wins. Despite a tough defense overall, before tonight's Pistons have allowed the 9th best field goal percentage to opponents and 8th best percentage behind the arc. For their part, they boasted the worst true shooting percentage in the league. Nothing about tonight will help those figures.

Next up for the Pistons will be the 8-2 Cleveland Cavs on Tuesday night.

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