Altitude sickness sets in for Detroit Pistons in loss against Nuggets, 120-113

The Denver Nuggets handled the Detroit Pistons 120-113 in Denver tonight. The first quarter was a high scoring back and forth affair which ended up finishing 33-29 in favour of the home side. From that point forward however, it was all downhill for the Detroit Pistons.

At one point during the third quarter they were down by 26 points and staring down the barrel of another big loss. But a huge run by the Detroit Pistons led by Dwight Buycks to get them back into the game and pull within 6 points late in the final quarter, only to eventually and inevitably fall short.

The Denver Nuggets bench was terrific and outscored the Detroit Pistons bench 46-36, with the reason it was so close all thanks to Dwight Buycks and his fourth quarter scoring.

At one point near the end of the third quarter the Denver Nuggets were perfect on all of their second chance point opportunities and had 21 second chance points for the game.

Whereas the Detroit Pistons could only manage a meager 6 points for the game, despite 9 offensive rebounds.

The few positives for the Detroit Pistons would be their three-point shooting, where they managed 51.9 percent for the game!

As well as that they also fought hard to get back into the game, and although they didn’t get the result, it was nice to see some fight in a Detroit uniform.

Stand Outs for the Denver Nuggets

Nikola Jokic put all his talent on display and had a triple double (23 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks) for the home side – he now has 8 for the season which is the most by a Denver Nuggets player since Fat Lever in the 88/89 season, while Jamal Murray added 26 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals, and Will Barton poured in 23 points off the bench.

Stand Outs for the Detroit Pistons

Andre Drummond had 21 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks and was probably our most consistent player on the night. Blake Griffin had 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists, while Dwight Buycks put up a career high 22 points and also added 1 rebound, 4 assist and 2 steals in just 23 minutes off the bench.

Dwight Buycks was the main catalyst for the run the Detroit Pistons were able to put together to be in with a shot at stealing the game at the end.

The Detroit Pistons next game will be against one of the most in form teams currently in the NBA as they head to Portland to take on the Trailblazers on Saturday night.