Detroit Pistons look to make it three in a row as they head to Sacramento

The Detroit Pistons kicked off their five game road trip with a thrilling double-overtime win against the Portland Trail Blazers, and will try to make it two from two as they face the Sacramento Kings.

Despite having their game postponed a day due to extreme weather, the Detroit Pistons put together an impressive performance that has rarely been seen on the road this season in a 125-124 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

The win was built on the back of an improved defensive effort in the fourth quarter, restricting the Blazers to just 19 points, an incredible feat against a team containing Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

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It was also the young core of the Pistons who were vital in being able to outlast the Trail Blazers.

Andre Drummond (28 points), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (26 points) and Reggie Jackson (31 points) combined for a whopping 85 points, accounting for 68 per cent of the Pistons’ points scored.

Jackson looked to be back to his scoring best, shooting 50 per cent from the field despite some iffy late game shots that came from playing iso-ball.

Similarly, Caldwell-Pope continued to justify being payed a max deal as he shot 64.3 per cent from the field and 57.1 per cent from three.

Most impressively however, was Drummond’s game.

He’s previously been criticised for his attitude and looking disinterested in certain games, but against the Trail Blazers he was hungry.

He added 14 rebounds to his 28 points and was a nightmare for the Trail Blazers on defence, coming away with 4 blocks and 2 steals.

The most jaw dropping part of his performance came from his insane second-half endurance.

Drummond played every single minute after halftime and then proceeded to play the entirety of overtime, finishing the game with 51 minutes logged.

Somehow Drummond looked as fresh in his 51st minute of court time as he did in his first.

Drummond deserves as much praise as possible for not only having the stamina to put in a performance like that, but also for the way he’s improved his free throw shooting enough to actually play late in the fourth and throughout overtime.

It will be interesting to see how he recovers after logging so many minutes and Stan Van Gundy may look to use Aron Baynes more, as guarding DeMarcus Cousins is a taxing task.

Drummond is an athletic freak, so one day off may be all he needed, but if he goes into the Golden 1 Center lacking energy Cousins may be in for a huge performance.

Cousins has been ridiculous this season for the Sacramento Kings, averaging 28.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks while shooting 44.9 per cent from the field and 37.2 per cent from three.

He’s also been consistent with his performances.

Out of the 36 games he has played so far this season he has only failed to reach at least 20 points six times, while in 26 games he’s reached 25 points or more.

Cousins does the bulk of the heavy lifting for this team as only Rudy Gay (18.7 points per game) and Darren Collison (12.7 points per game) are averaging double digits in scoring.

If Drummond and Baynes are able to restrict Cousins’ impact and are able to keep Gay from getting out of hand, they should have the firepower to outscore the Kings.

The Kings are also 17th in the league for opponent points per game (105), while the Pistons are still sitting fourth (100.3) despite a stretch of less than impressive games.

If the Pistons are able to put in an engaged effort on defence and keep DeMarcus Cousins from going too crazy, they should be able to continue their perfect start to their Western Conference road trip.

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