Pistons vs. Cavs final score: Second-half woes sinks Detroit again

Play a competitive first half, go into halftime full of confidence, come out, get spanked, demoralised, and out hustled. Rinse. Repeat.

That’s the formula the Pistons have lived by the last couple of weeks and tonight was no different as the Pistons let a strong first half go, where the team was only down 5 at the break, to sink into the sands and allow a new look Cavaliers squad to overrun them, 112-90.

The Pistons got productive play from Blake Griffin once again, as the star forward finished with 25 points on 10-of-22 shooting, including 3-of-5 from downtown, to go along with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and one power dunk on Larry Nance Jr.

Speaking of Nance, the Wyoming product and future former Laker had himself a field day against Andre Drummond, posting a career-high 22 points to supplement 15 rebounds, while Lebron James put on a clinic as usual, adding a game high 31, plus 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 5-of-7 from 3-point range.

Andre Drummond was off the whole game, and his consecutive games with a double-double streak ends at 18 after falling one rebound short, posting 15 and 9 boards.

The problem tonight, as it was against Miami, was a lack of production outside of Griffin, with no one stepping up to the plate to complement the five-time All-Star. Ish Smith posted another pedestrian game of 6 points, 6 assists and multiple frustrating, no-dribble offensive sets, while James Ennis had his first real bad game since joining Detroit, shooting 1-8 from the field in his 28 minutes.

Stanley Johnson and Anthony Tolliver led the bench brigade with 9 and 8 points respectively, and Luke Kennard was brought down from the attic and dusted off in the final few minutes to hit a couple of three pointers (I KNOW RIGHT?!), but ultimately this game was lost the minute the team walked out of the locker room at half time.

QUICK STATS

PISTONS

Blake Griffin - 25p, 8r, 6a, 10-22 FG, 3-5 3PT, 2-5 FT

Andre Drummond - 15p, 9r, 5-5 FG, 5-5 FT

Reggie Bullock - 11p, 2b, 3-7 3PT

CAVS

LeBron James - 31p, 7r, 7a, 11-17 FG, 5-7 3PT, 4-6 FT

Larry Nance Jr. - 22p, 15r, 9-15 FG, 4-5 FT

Rodney Hood - 13p, 3r, 2a, 4-12 FG, 5-5 FT

***

Pistons next play on Wednesday, 8PM ET against the Toronto Raptors...fun.