'Finally': Pistons snap L.A. drought, salvage trip

Los Angeles — Pistons owner Tom Gores greeted coach Stan Van Gundy outside the locker room with a hug.

“Finally!” Gores exclaimed.

Finally, indeed.

Since Gores purchased the team in 2011, the Pistons had not won a game in his home city of Los Angeles. Not against the Lakers. Not against the Clippers. The streak had reached 11 games, with the last win coming on Nov. 12, 2010 against the Clippers, a 113-107 win in overtime.

Streak over.

The Pistons did away with their L.A. losing streak with a 102-97 win over the Lakers on Sunday night at Staples Center — and Gores enjoyed it at his usual center-court seats.

BOX SCORE: Pistons 102, Lakers 97

“It’s big. We know — every one of us in this organization, staff, people on the business side, players — we know we’ve got a great, great owner and we haven’t delivered a win here since he’s owned the team," Van Gundy said.

“So it was huge today to finally get one in here. That feels as good as breaking the losing streak.”

More than the L.A. streak, the Pistons (19-24) needed to end their three-game losing skid on the five-game western road trip. They finished with bookend wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and the Lakers and return to The Palace for a three-game home stand, beginning Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks.

Tobias Harris had 23 points — including a critical 3-pointer with 30.5 seconds left — to stretch a 96-95 lead to four. The Lakers missed a couple 3-point attempts to try to close the gap but Marcus Morris (23 points, nine rebounds) split a pair of free throws with 15.3 seconds left for a 100-95 advantage.

D’Angelo Russell (20 points) kept the Lakers (15-30) close with two free throws to trim the deficit to three. Reggie Jackson (16 points) ended it with two free throws with 7.8 seconds left for the final margin.

“It was a huge win for us, just because we’ve had some tough games that we feel like we’ve underachieved in,” Harris said.

The Lakers had their last lead at 94-93, after a 3-pointer by Lou Williams at the 3:04 mark. Jackson answered with a three-point play to put the Pistons back up two, but Brandon Ingram trimmed the deficit to one with a free throw with 1:33 left.

Neither team led by more than four in the fourth quarter, until the final margin.

Andre Drummond had 15 points and 17 rebounds, including a 62-foot 3-pointer to end the first half and put the Pistons ahead, 59-57, at halftime. He got a steal and measured the shot — one he often works on in practice — and rattled it in off the backboard.

The Pistons gave up another big first quarter, as the Lakers jumped to a 31-23 lead, but then they turned the tables, with a 36-26 second period, capped by Drummond’s basket.

“We all know we’ve got a young team here. Down the stretch, we are playing teenagers, 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds and this is a grown man’s league,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “Are we good enough to win? Absolutely we are, but it takes making mistakes.

“There is no formula that tells you this is exactly what happens.”

The Lakers jumped to an 11-3 lead at the 7:42 mark and looked to be running away when they stretched it to 18-4 with 5:23 remaining in the first quarter. Timofey Mozgov hit a jumper, Russell added a jumper and Nick Young knocked down a 3-pointer for the early margin, but Morris answered with a jumper and a 3-pointer and Jackson scored on a drive to cut the lead to seven.

The Pistons had another 8-2 spurt, with a three-point play by Harris, followed by a dunk and a free throw on a technical foul and then a lay-in by Reggie Bullock.

rod.beard@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard