The top team in the Eastern Conference gets, at least on paper, a breather on the scheduled Sunday. The Detroit Pistons return home from a West Coast trip to host the rookie-laden Brooklyn Nets.
The Pistons responded from an ugly loss to Phoenix on Thursday with a 131-124 victory over Golden State on Friday. That boosted the Pistons’ record to 35-12.
“It’s the NBA, it’s a lot of games, but that was just unacceptable,” reserve guard Daniss Jenkins told the Detroit News. “That’s just not who we are. They (the Suns) came out and beat us at our own game, and that’s unacceptable from all levels. We just knew we had to come out and put out a better performance. We’re gonna lose the game, but not like that. So, we all just wanted to come out and just show ourselves that we can be better than that.”
The Pistons had a 25-10 advantage in fast-break points and a 62-40 advantage in paint points against the Warriors.
“I thought the tempo we played at, the ability to take advantage of what was there, I thought they did a great job of that. And just sharing the ball, playing at tempo, executing the gameplan, all those things, I thought we did that early, and it was good for us,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
When Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren are playing well, the Pistons are tough to beat. Cunningham had 29 points and 11 assists, while Duren powered for 21 points and 13 rebounds.
“He’s awesome. He reminds me of Luka and James Harden,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Cunningham, an All-Star starter. “Just kind of a one-man offense, running everything through him. He’s a great, great player, really coming into his own.”
The Nets are looking for a star to emerge from their handful of first-round picks last June. Egor Demin, a lottery pick, has shown flashes of turning into that type of player.
He racked up his first double-double with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists in a 109-99 victory over Utah on Friday. He also set an NBA rookie record by making a 3-pointer for his 34th consecutive game.
“It means a lot,” Demin said during a postgame TV interview. “It’s the first second game of a back-to-back we’ve won, the first (win) without (Michael Porter Jr.). He’s a big, big, big part of our team, but we’ve got to be able to function without him, too. So that win means a lot, especially for me being back home I can say so. It’s pretty fun.”
Porter Jr., the team’s leading scorer, missed the game due to personal reasons. Demin was part of a very green lineup that also included Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf. It worked well enough to snap the team’s seven-game losing streak.
Cunningham and Duren played big roles in the first meeting between the teams on Nov. 7. Cunningham poured in 34 points, and Duren supplied 30 in a 125-107 victory. Porter Jr. led Brooklyn with 28 points.
