The Pistons have their first regular season winning streak of the Stan Van Gundy era, winning their second straight and improving to 2-3 (2-1 with Greg Monroe) with a 98-95 win over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.
The Pistons jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead in the first two minutes of the game thanks in part to a couple three-pointers -- one from Brandon Jennings and the other from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. They would continue to make their threes and control the score for much of the rest of the game.
The Pistons led from the start -- ironically behind a pair of free throws from Josh Smith, who finished 4-10 from the line -- and did not relinquish the lead until the third quarter when former Pistons guard Brandon Knight scored seven of nine Bucks points and assisted on the other bucket to help the Bucks to a five-point lead, 68-63. That's when the other dog from that Brandons trade, Brandon Jennings, hit back-to-back threes, assisted an Andre Drummond layup and finished the quarter with a third triple to give the Pistons back the lead for good.
The Bucks played pesky defense most of the night, never letting the Pistons or the score out of their reach (it was a two-point game with one and a half to play), but the Pistons' shots were dropping, especially the clutch baskets, and they got stops when they needed them.
The Pistons shot 49 percent in the first half (50 percent from three) and finished at 49 percent overall (48 percent from three). Almost a cool Seth Rogen/Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie.
Six Pistons finished in double figures. Drummond had the lone double-double with 11 and 10, and two blocks. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led all scorers with 19 on 11 shots, including a huge triple late in the fourth. Caron Butler played the most minutes of any Pistons off the bench and recorded 13 points thanks to 3-for-4 shooting from three.
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GameThread Roll Call
# | Commenter | # Comments |
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1 | jay_uno | 66 |
2 | Aris Kafadogias | 54 |
3 | lilbabyj32 | 49 |
4 | Jason Brunskowski | 47 |
5 | Ben Quagliata | 39 |
6 | Goose15 | 33 |
7 | TheGille | 31 |
8 | 21GB | 28 |
9 | TDP | 27 |
10 | stevenyc | 26 |
11 | benjals | 25 |
12 | IamPAP | 25 |
13 | bonerici | 20 |
14 | MrHappyMushroom | 20 |
15 | Iron Sheik | 19 |
16 | OK from J | 14 |
17 | CheerstoLilWayne | 13 |
18 | The truth Rodney White | 13 |
19 | jayod | 11 |
20 | zeke.khaseli | 10 |
21 | Justin Lambregtse | 7 |
22 | J Dre | 6 |
23 | Packey | 6 |
24 | Pistonlove | 6 |
25 | bnumerich | 5 |
26 | Rban | 5 |
27 | christiaanl | 5 |
28 | Ron MarsHall | 4 |
29 | brgulker | 4 |
30 | smackdab | 4 |
31 | alaskanpistonsfan | 4 |
32 | NiceUnparticularMan | 4 |
33 | awesome.hog | 3 |
34 | Rusty_Shackleford | 3 |
35 | Mort Neff | 3 |
36 | rames | 3 |
37 | Joe Cool99 | 3 |
38 | BandWagonerPaysTheDues | 2 |
39 | Mike2132 | 2 |
40 | Johnny Quid | 2 |
41 | shags | 2 |
42 | bugman222 | 2 |
43 | jonathan.onne | 2 |
44 | thebeastman17 | 2 |
45 | J'Hue Casey | 1 |
46 | I Got Munnyz | 1 |
47 | SRK756100 | 1 |
48 | aussiepiston | 1 |
49 | V. | 1 |
50 | Kevin Sawyer | 1 |
51 | GOAT FACE | 1 |
52 | zeke_geek | 1 |