Pistons at Lakers final score: Pistons close road trip with tight win in LA, 102-97

The Pistons and Lakers entered tonight’s game each with three game losing streaks. The two teams had lost their last two games by a combined 109 points.

It was a tight game for the most part, but it was less an exercise in good, competitive basketball and more of a “which team can fail less” performance.

Neither team played much in the way of defense in the first half, heading to the locker room with a 59-57 Pistons lead. But neither team could find the bottom of the hoop in the third quarter, but more of due to some inept offense rather than sterling defense.

The Pistons closed each of the first three quarters with some fun buzzer beaters. In the first quarter, Tobias Harris raced to finish with a dunk as time expired.

Then Andre Drummond tossed one in from the opposite end three point line before halftime.

Then Ish Smith nailed the baseline fadeaway as time expired in the third.

So that was pretty fun.

It wasn’t a quarter ending buzzer beater, but there was a big shot as time expired on the shot clock in the fourth quarter too. With the Pistons unable to pull away in the fourth, they led by one as Reggie Jackson milked the shot clock in the final minute. The play broke down and the ball ended in Tobias Harris’ hands. He got the three point attempt up quickly and nailed it to give the Pistons a four point lead with 30 seconds remaining.

Harris and Marcus Morris led the team in scoring, each with 23 points. Drummond posted 15 points and 17 rebounds, but shot just 6-17 from the field. He also chipped in three steals and a block.

There was a bit of a nervous moment in the third quarter, when Drummond came down badly going after a rebound and his knee buckled under him. He went to the locker room, but was back out for the fourth quarter and didn’t seem to show any lingering effects.

So even though it wasn’t a particularly fun road trip, the win somewhat salvages it for the Pistons. They finish it 2-3, which is about what you’d expect. They get back home (and to some reasonable tipoff times for the Eastern time zone folks) with Atlanta on Wednesday.

ROLL CALL: