The Detroit Pistons got their first home victory of the season after defeating the Indiana Pacers 96-94, following a strong performance from their frontcourt.
Detroit Pistons fans got to see something tonight that they have been waiting to see since he was brought on to the team – a breakout game from Christian Wood. Wood finished the night with 19 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 80 percent from the field and hitting all three perimeter shots he took.
Andre Drummond put together a solid outing, recording 18 points and 18 rebounds and provided another solid performance on defense. Despite the Pistons relinquishing the lead in the late fourth quarter and committing over 20 turnovers for the second consecutive game, they were able to overcome the adversity and come away with the win.
Detroit improves to 2-2 on the season, while the Pacers fall to 0-3, following their second loss of the year to the Pistons.
Players of the game
For Indiana – Domantas Sabonis. As was the case in the season opener, he was an offensive force that Detroit had the most trouble with tonight, despite shooting the ball slightly worse than before. He finished the night with 21 points and 14 rebounds on 44 percent shooting.
For Detroit – Christian Wood. This almost goes without say, as again Wood had a stellar night for the Pistons. He was consistently out hustling Pacers’ players for rebounds, forcing his way into the low post on offense, and even putting his shooting ability on display by hitting all three of the shots he took from beyond the arc.
Key moment
After going on a quick 7-0 scoring run earlier in the quarter, the Pacers reclaimed the lead with 2:53 remaining in the game, eventually stretching it to 94-90. With 1:25 left, Luke Kennard hit a 25 foot shot which brought the Pistons within one, and on the next possession Derrick Rose gave the Pistons the lead after driving to the basket for a layup, despite having a lackluster night.
Nick’s notes
The Pistons won, and I’m obviously satisfied with that. However, I’m once again finding myself slightly confused with Dwane Casey’s late game management. Despite being the Pistons leading scorer tonight, and undoubtedly having the biggest impact on the game when he was playing, Wood was nowhere to be found at the end of the game.
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I understand that there’s a game plan that’s made before tip off, and generally you’ll try to stick to that. However, when Wood is providing the impact that he is on both ends of the floor, and Markieff Morris isn’t quite delivering – why not make the adjustment and send Wood in alongside Drummond? Obviously things ended up fine and the Pistons won. But before that happened, the Pacers offense was on a roll and outscored Detroit 23-18 in the final quarter.
Kennard got his first start of the season tonight, and had a relatively inconsistent night shooting the ball. However, the starting unit of Tim Frazier, Kennard, Tony Snell, Morris, and Drummond opened the game shooting 7 for 7, including 3 for 3 from deep. The slight adjustment of replacing Bruce Brown with Kennard paid off for Coach Casey.
To further prove that point, Brown hit all three of the three-pointers he took tonight. He has never hit that many in his short NBA career, and after scoring a solid 11 points off of the bench tonight, it could be a sign of good things to come.