Auburn Chills for Lakers

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. â€”  Phil Jackson remembers well the last time he was here.

Clandestine bathroom meetings with the core of the Laker mini-dynasty deep inside a grayish arena. Kids screaming outside the windows of the team hotel in the wee hours of the morning. Meeting with the media for what could have been the last time, four of his kids standing next to him.

And above all, a drubbing at the hands of the Detroit Pistons.

Players have come and gone, and the Laker coach has gone and come back, but the results between the Pistons and Lakers have stood pretty much the same since the 2004 NBA Finals.

In the latest chapter, the Pistons led by as many as 22, won by a final score of 102-93, and took a sixth consecutive victory against the Lakers, including the last three games of the ’04 Finals.

“We did some things that looked good out there tonight, but some of our players didn’t look ready to play today,� Jackson said.

For starters, the Lakers didn’t get much help from theirs.

Kobe Bryant had his points, 39, and Chris Mihm had 16, but no other Laker had more than nine Sunday at the Palace.

Kwame Brown had two points and four rebounds in 20 minutes. Smush Parker and Lamar Odom each had nine points and combined to make eight of 22 shots.

On the other side, all five Piston starters scored in double figures to hand the Lakers a clunker in the first game of a seven-game trip, their longest of the season.

“To kind of get back to the old days of the Pistons and the Lakers, we’ve got some catching up to do,� Bryant said. “We’ll get there one day.�

Not Sunday.

The Lakers were close enough at halftime, trailing, 56-47, but then came a third quarter in which they had more turnovers, nine, than field goals, six, on the way to an 84-63 deficit going into the fourth.

“Just the usual Lakers, coming out of halftime sluggish in the third quarter, slow to pick it up,� Parker said. “Game like this, that will cost us.�

Parker will be lighter in the personal-finance department after missing the team charter flight Saturday from Los Angeles because he overslept. He arrived late that night after flying coach class on a commercial flight and will be fined by the team.

There are other, more pressing issues, including Odom’s recent turnover spree -- eight against the Pistons after seven Friday against Golden State. Odom has scored a total of 26 points in his last three games, acting indecisive and error-prone.

“He controls the tempo of the game, gets everybody going,� Bryant said. “When he’s having a tough time out there on the floor, it’s a lot harder for everybody else.�

It didn’t help that the Pistons, who have staked their reputation on defense, can also score at will under the system of new Coach Flip Saunders. Rasheed Wallace had 24 points, Richard Hamilton scored 20, Tayshaun Prince had 19 and the usually defense-minded Ben Wallace had 14 points to go with 13 rebounds.

As the Lakers fell to 23-20, a game behind their pace last season, the Pistons improved to 37-5, slightly ahead of the record-setting Chicago Bull team that went 72-10 in 1995-96.

“Best team in the league right now,� Bryant said. “Not much to say.�

No more than a brief walk from where Bryant stood in the locker room Sunday was the bathroom where Jackson met with a handful of Laker veterans as they collectively grasped at straws in June 2004. The message that night: It can still be done, with some tinkering and adjusting.

But the Lakers haven’t beaten the Pistons since an overtime victory in Game 2 of that year’s Finals.

They made a mild late-game run Sunday, with Mihm’s nine-foot hook shot bringing them to within 98-90 with 1:22 to play.

Then Bryant missed a three-point shot, Odom missed a layup off a rebound and Parker’s dunk attempt was blocked by Rasheed Wallace to end the threat.

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Long trip

The Lakers opened a seven-game trip with a 102-93 loss in Detroit. The rest of the trip with record vs. each team:

*--* When Opponent W-L Tuesday New York 1-0 Wednesday Indiana 1-0 Friday Charlotte 1-0 Saturday New Orleans* 0-0 Feb. 7 Dallas 2-0 Feb. 8 Houston 0-1

*--*

* at Oklahoma City