DETROIT – Despite being without star point guard Cade Cunningham, the Detroit Pistons jumped out to one of its hottest starts of the season and a 20-point first-half lead, but fell apart in the fourth quarter and dropped a 131-110 roller-coaster-of-a-contest to the Sacramento Kings Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena.
One the heels of a 37-point, 13-assist, and 10-rebound night by Domantas Sabonis, the Kings showed their resolve, turning a 20-point deficit (47-27) toward the end of the first quarter, into a 15-point third-quarter lead in just over 15 minutes of gametime.
To open the game, Jalen Duren and Bojan Bogdanovic combined to score 23 of the Pistons first 27 points, as the team went up 27-15 through five minutes of action. They continued to push the pace even after an entire lineup swap with just under four minutes remaining in the quarter, as Marcus Sasser, Alec Burks, and Kevin Knox II fueled the reserves to a strong quarter-ending push that put the Pistons up 47-29. The Pistons’ 47 first-quarter points tied the second most scored in any one quarter by any team in the NBA this season. Only the Indiana Pacers scored more (50) in a single stanza this year.
The Pistons got much of the same to start the second quarter, this time from a mix of starters and reserves. Bogdanovic picked up where he left off, converting on back-to-back baskets for the Pistons to push their lead to 54-36 with nine minutes remaining in the half. But from there, the Pistons went on a cold streak, getting outscored 19-7 over the next five minutes, including a 9-0 Kings run that saw second-year Kings forward Keegan Murray score seven of those points on his own to bring the score to 61-55.
Jaden Ivey got aggressive, making back-to-back trips to the free throw line, and converting on all four free throws to push the Pistons’ lead back to 65-55. But Murray answered with a slashing layup then a fastbreak dunk less than a minute later. Sabonis, who remained very active all night, trimmed the Kings’ deficit to a point after his own made basket and an assist to Kevin Huerter.
The Kings used an 11-0 run to take a 66-65 lead with just over a minute remaining in the half after Fox knocked down a mid-range jumper, and one more as the second quarter ended to give the Kings their largest first-half lead, 68-65. A flopping technical foul was assessed against Burks, and the Kings made the free throw before the start of the second half.
The seesaw third quarter saw the Pistons fall by as much as 15, 83-68, but they clawed back on thanks to some sharpshooting by little-used reserve forward Joe Harris, who knocked down three three-pointers in six minutes of third-quarter action. Burks went on his own 10-0 run to close out the third and bring the home team to within three points, 98-95, as the third quarter ended.
But in the decisive fourth quarter, after the game was tied at 101 apiece with 8:20 remaining, the Kings’ Murray heated up and scored seven straight points before Pistons Head Coach Monty Williams stopped the game with a timeout to refocus his team.
“There were times when we just couldn’t get into an offense. We didn’t have the organization that we had in the first (half),” Williams said.
“When we get off and start playing well and teams get physical with us and hit us in the mouth, we have to be able to overcome it. There was some indecision as to what to do when the team took an option away from us.”
When the action resumed, so did the Kings’ momentum. The Pistons continued to slide, letting sloppy play and careless turnovers dig the team into an insurmountable deficit, never getting any closer, and only scoring two points over the final 4:33 of the game.
The Pistons were led by Bogdanovic, who had 26 points. Duren notched a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double, and Ivey had 22 points to go with six assists, and five rebounds.
In total, four Kings players scored 20-or-more points, including Keegan Murray, who was taken just one pick ahead of the Pistons Jaden Ivey in the 2022 draft. Murry finished the game with 32 points on 13-of-17 from the field and 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Fox notched 26 points and Malik Monk for 20 off the bench for Sacramento.
“They played in our paint. Sabonis had a really good night. Our low-man presence was just not there tonight. But then Sabonis got to his left hand a ton from one-on-one situations. He just had a really good night,” Williams said.
“I’d much rather see us just shoot the ball rather than try to make some of these tough passes tonight,” he added after remarking about the Pistons’ 21 turnovers on the night.
Ivey said after the game that the team has to be tougher in order to hold leads they establish early in the game.
“Effort. We’ve gotta have more. More fight, more dog – including myself. We had the ball. We’ve gotta make plays,” he said. “Cade was just talking to us, telling us to keep going. Coach preached it after the game. We have to stay solid throughout the game.”
The Pistons have now lost five in a row after breaking the NBA-record-streak of 28 consecutive losses, falling to 3-34 on the season, while the Kings better their record to 22-14. The Pistons play the visiting San Antonio Spurs Wednesday, Jan. 10, at LCA.
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