Lakers Go Gently Into Bad Night

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. —  The Lakers lost a game to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night, Karl Malone irritated his strained left hamstring, Kobe Bryant went to the bus without a word and their cramped, steamy locker room was too quiet for a team that doesn’t take losses to heart until May.

The Lakers, even in defeat, by 106-96 at The Palace of Auburn Hills, weren’t quite themselves, and it showed. Somebody, it appeared, was unhappy about something or someone; Laker veterans dressed behind a grease-board partition while young players pulled their clothes on quickly and drifted away.

Malone, among the few who stayed behind -- primarily for treatment on his tender hamstring -- shook his head and refused to explain the suddenly somber mood.

“Ah, I don’t know,” Malone said on his way to the loading dock. “I don’t know. We’ll keep that in here.”

After a three-game winning streak, all of it at Staples Center, the Lakers gave up 33 fourth-quarter points and went from one back to nine back in a critical five-minute stretch of the last quarter. They failed to make a field goal for nearly eight minutes while the Pistons put the game away before an adoring crowd, Bobby Sura -- Bobby Sura -- running them off the floor with eight fourth-quarter points.

Something not quite right on the basketball court preceded something not quite right in the locker room.

Bryant, who scored 19 points and defended Richard Hamilton with his usual zeal but missed 10 of 14 shots, in eight seasons as a Laker has rarely left an arena without speaking to reporters. But, while Coach Phil Jackson addressed writers in a hallway, Bryant brushed past the gathering and did not return. He waved to fans who spotted him through the tinted glass in the back of the bus, in the moments before Malone, Shaquille O’Neal and Gary Payton boarded.

“He didn’t have a good night,” Jackson said of Bryant. “Not a good night for Kobe. He wasn’t shooting the ball well and he was on his heels defensively.”

For sure, this was not Bryant’s loss. The Pistons shot a season-high 56.8% from the floor, took 46 rebounds to the Lakers’ 27, had Chauncey Billups score 24 more points and played O’Neal into a game complicated by fouls.

O’Neal committed three fouls in the first 5:58, the third with replacement Jamal Sampson waiting at the scorer’s table, Jackson mentioning afterward the referees should have seen Sampson when O’Neal shoved Mehmet Okur.

“I knew when I saw [referee] Jess Kersey ... it was going to be a long night,” O’Neal said.

It turned out to be a short night. In 31 minutes, he scored 20 points and took 10 rebounds, but played soft down the stretch, encumbered by five fouls.

“They were very aggressive to the ball and we weren’t very aggressive,” O’Neal said. “I wasn’t that aggressive. I had to be careful with what I did out there, with five questionable calls.”

While O’Neal tiptoed through the paint, Malone grabbed his hamstring again, after lunging for the ball midway through the fourth quarter. It had bothered him since last Wednesday’s game against Toronto at Staples Center. Malone played through it, as he does, and appeared to have made progress, when it got him again.

Laker trainer Gary Vitti called it basically the same injury, with the “same discomfort” as the original ailment.

“It’s all right,” Malone said of his hamstring. “The loss was worse. We didn’t stop anybody down the stretch. They got every loose ball and we didn’t help each other defensively. We should help each other a lot more. And we will.... We’ll work through it.”

Asked if he would play against the New York Knicks tonight, Malone nodded and said, “Oh yeah, I’m sure.”

O’Neal, however, said he was “a little bit” worried about Malone.

“We have to help him out,” he said. “Horace [Grant] has to step up and other guys have to step up until he gets better.”

Malone scored 20 points, his most as a Laker, on nine-of-13 shooting. Gary Payton made seven of 10 shots, including the Lakers’ first three-pointer since Friday night in Los Angeles against the Pistons. More than 75 minutes passed between three-pointers for the Lakers, who didn’t connect from the arc Sunday night against the Miami Heat and were 0 for 4 in the first half Tuesday.

“I think we let another one slip away,” O’Neal said. “We still have to get better on defense and we made a lot of mistakes down the stretch. We just have to get better. It seems when we make mistakes other teams are hyped and playing very well and they love to capitalize on our mistakes. So, we just have to limit our mistakes.”