Pistons vs Cavaliers final score: Pistons sleepwalk to a 110-103 win

The Detroit Pistons defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, this Thursday, 110-103. Those words can’t convey how uninspiring Detroit looked for most of the night.

In the short-term, wins are wins, and the Pistons are indeed undefeated in this young NBA season, now 4-0. In the long-term, it has to be concerning that the Pistons didn’t look great against a winless NBA team missing its best player. Cleveland kept it even most of the first half, the Pistons used a 12-2 run to build a double-digit lead at the end of the second quarter, and then Detroit never built on (or, I suppose, relinquished) that lead in any meaningful way for the rest of the game.

Andre Drummond had his second 20-20 game of the year with 26 points and 22 rebounds, Blake Griffin had 26 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists (in a more-than-I-would-like 36 minutes), and Reggie Jackson added 16 points and four assists. Those numbers, also, cannot convey how flat the offense looked until the Cavaliers defense broke down and gave away points.

Luckily, I have a video for that one:

Yeah, it was like that.

The other main concerns from the Pistons tonight are injury related: Luke Kennard left the game in the second quarter with a shoulder injury that looked... significant. We’ll have an update for you as more information becomes available, but it did not look good for Luke, and that would not be good for the Pistons.

Ish Smith also suffered an ankle tweak in the fourth quarter, leaving the bench and heading to the locker room, but he returned to the floor later so hopefully he’s healthy.

Detroit will play the Boston Celtics at home this Saturday at 7 p.m. If they play the way they played tonight, they will lose (even if Boston plays the way THEY have tonight).