Lakers Pound the Pistons : Pro basketball: Aggressive play helps Los Angeles win, 107-97, ending a seven-game losing streak against the NBA champions.

No longer content to remain civil on the court here Sunday afternoon, the Lakers considered every Detroit Piston elbow and shove, every stare and glare, as an act of aggression. As such, the only recourse was to launch a counter-offensive.

As physical and aggressive as the self-dubbed “Bad Boys” ever have been, the Lakers wrenched control of the lead in the third quarter and then, like neighborhood bullies, held down the squirming Pistons in the fourth quarter for a 107-97 victory.

When provoked, the Lakers are capable of pounding it out with anyone, including such heavyweights as the NBA’s defending champions. And, seven consecutive losses to the Pistons, including last season’s four-game sweep in the NBA Finals, provided all the provocation the Lakers needed.

“I don’t think they’ve ever seen their own style used against them like that by us,” Laker forward James Worthy said. “I think it might have surprised them. We played the bump and grind. The Celtics use to do that against us, and we reacted the same way.”

Just as, a few seasons back, the Lakers had trouble beating the Boston Celtics, their erstwhile rival, they felt they needed a victory against the Pistons Sunday to heal any psychological scars.

To do so, the Lakers turned to the credo know thy enemy. Only they took it a step further and imitated the Pistons’ aggressive style.

This time, it was the Lakers who flexed their strength on the boards for a 43-42 rebounding advantage. It was the Lakers who used strong play off the bench. And, it was the Lakers who, in a reversal from form, incurred all blows and did not squander a significant fourth-quarter lead.

In short, the Lakers finally have found a way to beat the Pistons. Whether their tactics will work again, should the teams meet in June for the NBA title, obviously is not known. But the Lakers (28-9) certainly did not want the prospect of carrying a losing streak against Detroit into the playoffs.

“This win is more for our mind-set than anything else,” Johnson said. “We came in here and beat the world champions. We’ve heard all that 0-7 stuff and now, we got that win and we know what to do to win.”

Piston players sloughed off the significance of Sunday’s game, but gave the Lakers credit for not backing down and, in fact, fighting back.

“They were really tough,” said Piston forward Dennis Rodman, looking and sounding as surprised as the bully who gets his nose punched.

“We had to be physical, and we had to be tough with them,” Johnson said. “Their whole thing is coming out and being aggressive and intimidate you. If you don’t meet that with your own (aggressiveness), then they are going to take you out of everything.”

The Lakers not only gave shots, they took them without flinching.

While Piston forward Mark Aguirre would be carried off on a stretcher with what turned out to be a minor back bruise, Worthy survived the collision and kept playing.

By the same token, Laker center Mychal Thompson absorbed a flurry of slaps from Isiah Thomas--a display not seen since Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested--late in the game and survived to play on. Thomas, who had 20 points and 10 assists, was ejected.

“Actually, it felt pretty good, like he (Thomas) was playing a Bahamian conga on my head,” Thompson said of Thomas’ blows to his neck and back of head. “It felt a little like a scalp massage.

“We kept them in control because we were aggressive. We aren’t a passive team. We’re just so smooth it usually doesn’t look like we’re working hard.”

Assertiveness alone does not win games, however.

The Lakers still needed production from Worthy, who scored 26 of his 31 points in the first half, a 21-point, 16-assist output from Johnson, a third-quarter surge highlighted by the reemergence of Byron Scott and a consistently strong fourth quarter in which the Lakers’ strong defense spawned offensive opportunities.

In a departure from the Pistons’ 108-97 overtime win over the Lakers at the Forum on Dec. 1, the Lakers this time started poorly and played well at the end. Coach Pat Riley had not planned on the start, but he had lectured his players in practice on Saturday about closing strong.

If not for Worthy’s prolific first half, the Lakers might have been too far behind to wage a decent second-half battle.

The Lakers missed their first five shots, and Detroit had a 7-0 lead before the ceremonial first elbow was even thrown. The Pistons opened as much as an 11-point lead one minute into the second quarter--paced by James Edwards, who had 19 of his 26 points in the first half--before the Lakers followed Worthy’s example and started being aggressive offensively.

Worthy, in the first quarter, had 12 of the Lakers’ 17 points. He made five of eight shots; the rest of the team one of 12. By halftime, Worthy had 26 points--five above his season average. And, Worthy’s defense limited Joe Dumars, the Pistons’ leading scorer, to eight points. Dumars made just four of 13 shots.

“Thank God for (Worthy),” Riley said. “He got down to business. I guess that’s why he makes all that money.”

The Lakers, thanks primarily to Worthy as well as contributions from reserves Orlando Woolridge and Michael Cooper, cut Detroit’s lead to 53-50 at halftime. As the teams retreated to neutral corners, the Lakers began preparing their second-half offensive.

It began with a dizzying 9-0 run that gave the Lakers’ a 59-53 lead and finally forced Piston Coach Chuck Daly to call a timeout to assess casualties. Scott, scoreless in the first half and mired in a shooting slumping, made a three-point shot, followed A.C. Green’s miss with an inside basket and then assisted on Johnson’s basket during that stretch.

The Lakers’ defense, meanwhile, forced the Pistons to miss their first eight shots and commit two turnovers. But Detroit seemingly had an easy two points when Mark Aguirre drove the basket for a layup with about seven minutes to play in the third quarter.

But Green caught up with Aguirre and contested the shot and then Worthy crashed into Aguirre out of bounds after the Piston forward had missed the layup. Both players lay entangled under the basket as play continued.

Riley tried to call a 20-second timeout so that the players could be attended to, but no one heard him. Instead, Johnson sank a three-point shot for a 62-55 Laker lead.

When play was finally halted with 6:34 to play, Worthy emerged with a sore lower back and left hip. Aguirre did not emerge at all. Aguirre’s back pain was so acute that he needed to be carried off on a stretcher. X-rays later showed no damage to Aguirre’s vertebra. A team doctor later reported that Aguirre suffered a bruised lower back.

That, basically, is the same injury as Worthy’s.

Worthy continued playing. Aguirre did not.

The Lakers continued to score, outside and inside, against the Pistons. Scott made two three-point shots in the quarter, Johnson one, and A.C. Green added six points, as the Lakers built as much as an 11-point lead.

Detroit, conversely, missed its first 12 shots in the quarter. The drought finally was broken when Bill Laimbeer followed Thomas’ miss with 4:41 to play. The Pistons finished the quarter making only four of 21 shots, enabling the Lakers to take an 80-69 lead into the fourth quarter.

In the Dec. 1 meeting, the Lakers took a six-point lead into the fourth quarter and extended the advantage to double figures before the Pistons took control, sent the game to overtime and then skunked the Lakers, 11-0, in the five-minute extra period.

The Lakers made sure the script was altered this time.

Worthy’s inside basket and accompanying free throw gave the Lakers a 14-point lead to open the quarter. Despite repeated Piston attacks, the Laker lead never dipped below five. In the final minutes, Thompson endured Thomas’ slap attack and the Lakers’ hardly flinched at the Pistons’ last-gasp assault. The game ended, appropriately, with Johnson sinking a hook shot from the baseline.