Pistons overcome sluggish third quarter, hold steady in win over Nets

The Detroit Pistons overcame a sluggish second-half start against the Brooklyn Nets to come away with their sixth win of the season.

Detroit moved to 6-18 with Tuesday night’s 122-111 win over the Nets.

Much of the Pistons’ success came from a strong opening quarter, where they put up a season-high 38 points in the first quarter. The Pistons were also strong defensively limiting both Kyrie Irving and James Harden to seven and eight points respectively.

The Nets made a big push in the second quarter, outscoring the Pistons 28-25 as the Pistons seemingly trailed off.

But a reset partway through the third got the Pistons back on track and they ended the third with 94 points, the most points the Pistons have put up through three quarters this year. Detroit ended the night shooting a season-high 56 percent overall.

The Pistons had a big lift from Jerami Grant, who tied his season-high of 32 points, pulled down five rebounds. Fifteen of Grants points came in the first quarter and ended the night going four of eight from three. He has scored two or more three-pointers in 23-straight games, extending the Pistons’ record for consecutive games with multiple triples.

Grant is just the 10th player in NBA history to record at least 23 multi-triple games.

Detroit also had some help from Delon Wright who scored 22 points, had four rebounds and doled out nine assists. Wright played aggressively against the Nets and attacked the rim several times creating his own scoring opportunities.

A few of those opportunities came off the help of Mason Plumlee, who ended the night with his fifth double-double of the season. Plumlee scored 14 points, pulled down seven boards to go along with his seven assists.

Grant, Wright and Plumlee had some backup offensively from their teammates. Both Josh Jackson and Saddiq Bey ended the night with a double-digit point.

Jackson scored 13 points to go along with his strong defensive performance against Irving and Harden. He had one block and two steals and proved disruptive, helping the Pistons force 15 Nets turnovers.

Bey, who put up much of his points in the fourth went six for six overall and was perfect from three. Bey has had more than a few frustrating nights offensively, but Tuesday showed no indication of that. He scored 15 points, had three rebounds and like Jackson helped the Pistons limit the Nets to 50 percent shooting overall.

Now, the Pistons look to build on a strong performance on both sides of the ball as they host the Indiana Pacers on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.