Vince Ellis

Detroit Free Press

It came in the season's 18th game, but Detroit Pistons small forward Luigi Datome finally got an opportunity.

The end result was similar – the Pistons dropped their ninth straight when the Los Angeles Lakers held off a fourth-quarter rally with a 106-96 victory at the Palace on Tuesday night.

But Datome was on the floor when the Pistons (3-15) turned a 21-point deficit into a more respectable outcome.

And in scoring seven points on 3-for-8 shooting, Datome probably made a case for another chance – possibly tonight when the Pistons face the Boston Celtics (7:30 p.m., FSD).

"It felt good to be out there," the second-year player from Italy said. "Everybody knows we are struggling. It's not a matter of who is playing now, for sure I would like to (play). "Everybody would like to. It's just a matter of winning games because we're on a losing streak. We just have to stay positive and keep on trusting each other."

Datome, 27, was hoping the hiring of Stan Van Gundy would allow him a chance to prove himself at the NBA level after he was buried on the bench in his first season with the Pistons. But he's struggled with several minor injuries this season and Tuesday marked his first appearance of the season. With a nine-game losing streak (the franchise's worst since a 10-game skid in March 2013), more Datome couldn't possibly hurt, right?

"Nobody's happy. Who's playing, who's not playing nobody's happy," Datome said. "Nobody can be happy and everyone is conscious of the situation right now. There's only one way - working hard, staying positive, staying together. Nobody has the magic wand to solve the situation, only we can."

Contact Vince Ellis: vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.