The Detroit Pistons cruised to an 84-73 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday at the 2008 NBA Summer League Presented by EA SPORTS.
Second-year guard Rodney Stuckey led all scorers with 21 points for the Pistons while second-year guard Coby Karl led the Lakers with 14 points.

The Pistons led by five at the end of the first quarter and by 10 at halftime. Stuckey set the early tone for the Pistons, scoring nine of his 11 first-half points in the opening quarter. The Lakers struggled in the first half, hitting just 9 of 22 shots.

The Lakers held the Pistons to just five points in the first five minutes of the third quarter and went on to outscore the Lakers by seven in the period. Detroit's defense answered the call by holding Los Angeles to just five points in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, building a double-digit lead.

"I thought we did pretty well for our first ballgame," Lakers Summer League head coach Dan Panaggio said. "They are a good ballclub. They had a little bit more size and maybe a little bit more experience, but I thought our guys played hard and they hung in there. At the end of the third quarter, we cut it to a one- or a two-point game and we may have run out of gas there. Maybe their size got to us."

The Lakers-Pistons game was the third of the four games scheduled on the NBA Summer League's opening day.