Pistons vs. Lakers final score: Detroit wastes cake, sleeps in LA, 93-85

Someone had to lose and it was the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night, 93-85. It was the Pistons' seventh straight loss. The Lakers ended a five-game losing streak. The Pistons are now 5.5 games out of the playoffs. Playoffs? Hahaha.

The only reason the Pistons weren't smacked by double digits into Golden State was because they were playing the 16- now 17- win Lakers. The Lakers are the P without the Swaggy (Nick Young was out with injury). The Pistons are the o-o-p without the flush. When you Google some of the players on the Lakers, as Ben Q. said we'd have to do, it says "Did you mean: NBA player". Yet, they looked like a competent bunch against the Pistons.

The Pistons led 50-49 at the half, thanks to a late Spencer Dinwiddie-led surge at the end of the second quarter, but the team scored just 35 points the rest of the game, no thanks in large part to an 11-point third quarter collapse.

Reggie Jackson was the worst he's been yet. Every time he touched the ball, the court seemed to close in on him and suffocate his play and thus, the Pistons' play, too. When he wasn't missing shot after shot, he was dribbling it off his foot or jump-passing it to the Lakers. Instead of getting better, he started moping. Actually, I think he may have even started crying. It was the Richie Tenenbaum tennis scene in The Royal Tenenbaums. Strange night at the STAPLES Center.

Jackson was finally pulled for good (until the final minute when Dinwiddie fouled out) with seven minutes left in the game and the Pistons down nine. Dinwiddie, Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond, Jodie Meeks and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (who hit a three!) pulled as close as three, but could not get stops when they needed them. When they did get stops, they couldn't knock down timely shots. They played to a one-point advantage in those final seven minutes, but the damage from its already-crowned PGOTF was already done.

The Pistons shot 39 percent in the game and 24 percent from three (8-34). DrumMonroe shot a combined 17-25, so that means the rest of the Pistons shot 25 percent. Nope, that will not get it done even against the NBA's 4th worst team.

Drummond finished with 14 points and 21 rebounds. Monroe had 24 and nine.

Box Score. (I don't recommend it.)

Now your Zzzs.