Detroit win despite Bryant's 39

The Pistons got a great victory. Even with Kobe in front of them, scoring 39 points. And while the Lakers turned a 22-point blowout into a close game down the stretch, the Pistons held on for a 102-93 victory.

This way, the Pistons are 37-5 and have won 11 in a row.

Kobe Bryant shot 12-for-28 from the court. His three-point shooting did him in, with 3-for-11 from beyond the arc.

"Tonight it didn't matter if he made 50, 40, 20, 10," coach Flip Saunders noticed. "The idea was for us to win. It wasn't Kobe Bryant against us, it was the Lakers against Detroit."

The result was that the solitary star couldn't beat a team of five stars. All of the Pistons' starters scored in double-digits, compared to two for L.A.

"The best thing about us is, we feel we've got five superstars out there," said shooting guard Richard Hamilton, who scored 20 points. "Everybody says we don't have a superstar. No, we've got five superstars."

We must notice that The Lakers hadn't lost four regular-season clashes in a row to the Pistons since the early 1970s. Asked whether there's a rivalry between the teams that fought for the NBA title two seasons ago, Bryant claims, "It's a little one-sided to be a rivalry."

In the end Detroit Pistons led by nine at halftime and blew the game open in the third quarter with a 9-0 run. Tayshaun Prince, who scored 19 points and checked Bryant most of the game, netted five during that run.