Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Ersan Ilyasova, and Marcus Morris combined to shoot an abhorrent 13-48 from the field and just 4-16 from long-range.
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Head to head, the Pistons are 2-5 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and 8-2 ATS in the last 10 meetings in Charlotte.
The Pistons’ next test comes Monday night in Charlotte against a team that’s beginning to solidify a stingy identity and has been particularly impressive defensively over its last five contests.
Drummond is the league’s leading rebounder and double-double man but the Hornets as a team held him to one of his worst games of the year. It’s hard in this league to get one good shot, so if you pass up that shot, it’s going to be unbalanced and people are going to be running down your throat the whole game.
Playing their second game in as many nights, the Pistons appeared out of rhythm, out of sorts, and generally unable to find any semblance of a groove.
While I understand we’re just a quarter of the way into the season and a lot can change over the course of 61 games, 21 games is a decent sample size, and what Drummond has been able to accomplish over that span is nothing short of spectacular.
Charlotte, which has struggled all season on the glass, turned the tables on Detroit despite playing without injured center Al Jefferson.
Drummond was on the bench with five fouls for 12 minutes of the second half but Van Gundy said that was immaterial relative to the big rebounding deficit. “We got crushed when Andre was out there”.
Steve Clifford, the Hornets coach, continued to baffle with his decisions, keeping Lin off the floor for the first eight minutes of the third quarter. But Carmelo Anthony was called for an offensive foul as the Knicks were trying to get the ball to Porzingis for another shot, and Nowitzki followed with a free throw before Williams made two more to close it out. Rookie guard Aaron Harrison played for just the third time this season. However the Hornets stormed back & left little question. They were 2-3 on the second night of back-to-backs coming into Monday’s game…. The Pistons (12-9) also play Monday, visiting the (11-8).
SPURS 119, 76ERS 68: In Philadelphia, LeMarcus Aldridge scored 26 points to lead San Antonio hours after Jerry Colangelo was named Philadelphia’s chairman of basketball operations.
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The victory over the Lakers was a game in which fans packed The Palace of Auburn Hills to see Kobe Bryant’s farewell game in the city, but after a 4-0 homestand, Van Gundy is hoping they found reason to return.
