DeMarre Carroll out with right knee contusion

The Lakers now sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 3-17 record, suggesting that the franchise is in full tank mode and ready to rebuild for the next season.

The Pistons (12-9) are a team worth visiting The Palace of Auburn Hills to see, even if their resurgence was not the primary reason numerous season-high crowd of 20,228 came. Kobe has played in each of the games on this road trip but was limited last night in Detroit with a stomach virus. “I hope when they get the chance to play, they come out with a lot more energy and a little bit more aggressiveness and just play better basketball”. That goes the same for DeMarre Carroll, who has shot 36% or lower in four of the last six games. “That’s my dawg. That’s my boy, man. It’s great to see him out here, see him play in person, meet him in person, shake his hand”.

“I do”, the Lakers general manager said Monday in a phone interview with The Times. ‘I can’t play with these young guys.’ That’s how much (swagger) Kobe had at the time.

“Wow, it felt absolutely awesome”, Bryant said. “In terms of comfort or peace of mind, I am completely fine”.

This was not one of those great battles, however. Embarrassingly, Marcelo Huertas led them in assists with four off the bench in 12 minutes. Why is Randle starting on the bench? Ersan Ilyasova, who got in foul trouble, played only 13 minutes.

Andre Drummond did what he normally does, notching a double-double of 18 points and 15 rebounds.

Bryant shot better against the Raptors over his career (.471 from the field) than against any other club and the 27.2 points he averaged against the team were his third-highest marks.

At least on one level, the move makes sense.

They made up publicly over the years, though they’ll never be good friends. One thing that hurt the Lakers against the Pistons was the health of Malone. Bryant had a career-best 81 points Jan 22, 2006, in Los Angeles against the Raptors.

O’Neal ended up giving the edge over Bryant after saying they were similar in many ways, including wanting the ball all the time, sharing the same work ethic and even walking the same way.

“We know that if we really want to be a contender, we need to keep playing this way, ” Jackson said. “But you can’t do that in this league”.

The Pistons started Sunday on a 15-0 run and put any thoughts of a Lakers season sweep to bed early.

The Los Angeles Lakers rookie has been in the sports headlines but mostly because many are left puzzled at why this year’s second overall top draft pick has been spending more time on the bench than on the floor.

“They didn’t say anything to me about it, but I don’t think they were happy about it. And I hope they’re not”, Scott said.

“It has to become who we are”, Clifford said of the team’s rebounding.

The task changes substantially now. The team last won a game in late March.