AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Lakers found out that the Detroit Pistons are a different team at home.
Chauncey Billups had 24 points and eight assists and sealed the game with a late 3-pointer as the Pistons posted their fourth straight home win, a 106-96 victory over the Lakers.
Detroit returned to the Palace of Auburn Hills after a 1-3 road trip that included a 94-89 loss to Los Angeles on Friday night. The Pistons capped the trip with a win in Phoenix before getting back at the Lakers.
"Every game at home is magnified when you struggle on the road, like we did on this last trip," Detroit coach Larry Brown said. "Every game against quality teams in this league is huge. The nice thing is we played (the Lakers) two games and we had chances to win both, so I hope our guys feel good about it."
Detroit had an 81-80 edge before scoring 10 of the next 12 points to pull away. Bobby Sura, who scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, made had a layup and a pair of free throws during the run.
Billups capped the burst, beating Kobe Bryant for a backdoor layup to give the Pistons a 91-82 edge with 4 1/2 minutes remaining.
"I thought we had some momentum going into the fourth quarter, but they really took it out of us down the stretch," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. "We just lost our way with them at the end."
Richard Hamilton scored six straight points for Detroit before Billups delivered the dagger, a 3-pointer with 94 seconds left that gave the Pistons a 100-90 cushion.
"This was a big win for us," Billups said. "It's tough to come back from the West Coast and play against a team like that. We just played them four or five days ago and we felt like we could have won that game, so we tried to learn from our mistakes."
Hamilton and Corliss Williamson had 14 points apiece for Detroit, which shot a season-high 57 percent (42-of-74) and held a 46-27 rebounding advantage.
Ben Wallace collected 12, 15 rebounds and five blocks but had tough game physically. He had X-rays on his collarbone at halftime and left briefly in the fourth after hurting his back in a collision with Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal.
Karl Malone scored 20 points and O'Neal had 20 and 10 rebounds despite foul trouble for the Lakers, who are unbeaten at home but have dropped three consecutive road games.
Bryant finished with 19 points despite 4-of-14 shooting and Gary Payton added 15 for Los Angeles, which committed only eight turnovers but could not overcome its lack of defense and rebounding.
"We let another one slip away tonight," O'Neal said. "We were slow on defense and made a lot of mistakes down the stretch. We just have to suck this one up and keep going."
