Lakers trail Pistons at halftime, 53-44

It was the Lakers who looked sluggish, who were slow to the basketball.

That was part of the reason why they trailed the Pistons at the half, 53-44.

The Lakers' defense saw the Pistons make 56.1% of their shots in the first half.

Allen Iverson burned the Lakers for 14 first-half points, making six of nine shots.

Rasheed Wallace had 11 points in the first half, making half of his 10 shots.

The Pistons didn't look like a tired team, or one that was playing its second game in two nights after playing at Golden State on Thursday.

The Lakers last played Wednesday night in New Orleans, but they were slower to the basketball in the first half than the Pistons.

With 5:22 left in the first quarter, Kobe Bryant threw down a dunk for his fifth points of the game.

The significance of that moment was that Bryant passed Larry Bird for 23rd on the NBA's all-time scoring list.

But that wasn't what brought the fans out of their seats.

That came when Pau Gasol threw a lob pass to Bryant that looked as if it were too high.

But Bryant kept rising and rising until he caught the pass and threw down a one-handed dunk.

Gasol jumped in the air while the ball was in flight, looking as if he was hoping he hadn't thrown an errant pass to Bryant.

When Bryant scored, the crowd went into a frenzy and Gasol high-fived Bryant back down court.

Turner is a Times staff writer.

broderick.turner@latimes.com