MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Michigan News Source) – Down 64-50 at the half, the Detroit Pistons rallied in the second half scoring 66 points while holding Minnesota to just 40 points in a 116-104 win on New Year’s Eve. Seven of the 10 players that played, due to the NBA and coaches suspensions after the Orlando game, scored in double figures with one double-double.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the team with 28 points shooting 10-of-14 from the floor with six rebounds. Marvin Bagley III recorded the double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Both Saddiq Bey and Alec Burks added 13 points while Hamidou Diallo had 12 points and Cory Joseph and Rodney McGuder posted 11 points.
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Coming out of the locker room down 14 points, Detroit scored 38 points in the third quarter making 10 shots with five from beyond the arc. Bey pulled Detroit to within six, 67-61, at the 9:19 mark on a dunk off an assist from Bogdanovic. Minnesota pushed their lead back to 11, 72-61, with 8:00 left in the quarter but an Isaiah Stewart dunk put Detroit back to within five, 74-69, at the 6:05 mark. With 4:41 left, Minnesota made it a 12-point lead, 83-71, but Detroit went on a 17-5 run over the final four minutes to tie the game at 88 on a Cory Joseph shot with 0.1 seconds left.
Detroit’s defense allowed just 16 points with four shots made from the floor in the fourth quarter. Diallo scored six straight points to start the quarter to give Detroit a 94-92 lead at the 10:12 mark. That started a 15-4 run for a 103-92 lead over seven minutes as the Pistons took over the game. Minnesota came within four, 106-102, with 3:24 to go in the game but the Piston defense didn’t allow another shot to be made ending on a 10-2 run for the win.
Pistons’ head coach Dwane Casey said, “A lot of it was our defense. It’s about the second unit’s character. We have a lot of character guys in the group that hadn’t been getting a lot of run, but they came in and played with pure heart, pure mind and won the game for us.”
The Pistons are now 10-29 on the year and continue their five-game road trip on Monday in Portland.
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