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 Now, Detroit point guard Brandon Jennings was racing up court
with the ball. Jennings hit a bank shot with one-tenth of a second
remaining, giving the Pistons a 105-104 victory Tuesday night.
Detroit has won six straight games, improving to 11-23 after a 3-19
start. They had to overcome an 18-point second-quarter deficit to
win this one.
"We're getting better," Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I think
tonight proved it. We showed really good resolve to stay with the
game. We got lucky at the end. But you have to be down one on the
road to have that break happen."
Center Andre Drummond led Detroit with 20 points and 17 rebounds,
seven of them on offense, where the Pistons scored 28 second-chance
points.
Forward Greg Monroe had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and backup point
guard D.J. Augustin scored 19 points. Augustin played so well that
Van Gundy felt badly replacing him with Jennings, the starter, with
3:14 left in the game. Augustin hit 8 of 18 shots, while Jennings
hit 4 of 17 before the game winner.
"My shot wasn't falling, but I stuck with it," Jennings said.
Reserve forward Jeff Ayres led the Spurs (21-15) with 16 points, and
Duncan added 15 points and seven rebounds. But Duncan played just
eight minutes in the second half. Coach Gregg Popovich's only
explanation for that was he made other choices.
San Antonio went ahead by three with four minutes remaining on a
3-point basket by guard Manu Ginobili, the Spurs' fifth of the
fourth quarter.
But the Spurs missed six free throws during the final 3:14.
Detroit guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made a driving shot with 2:12
left. Pistons guard Jodie Meeks was intentionally fouled and hit two
free throws right before that bad connection between Duncan and
Mills on the inbounds pass. After Drummond retrieved the turnovers,
Jennings did the rest.
"Our confidence is growing," Van Gundy said.
San Antonio point guard Tony Parker returned after sitting out five
consecutive games and 10 of 12. However, he lasted only a half,
spending the rest of the game on the bench. Parker missed all three
of his field-goal attempts, and he scored three points and committed
two turnovers in 13 minutes.
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"He is healthy," Popovich said. "He wanted to play, but I was being
conservative. I wanted to make sure he didn't reinjure it."
San Antonio led by 18 with four minutes remaining in the first half,
but Detroit responded with an 11-0 push in which Augustin and
Jennings made 3-point shots.
The Pistons made another long run in the third quarter, 10-0, this
time overtaking the Spurs for an 82-77 lead heading to the fourth.
The 6-foot-10 Drummond produced nine points and six rebounds in the
third. The Pistons turned seven offensive rebounds -- four by
Drummond -- into 14 second-chance points in the period.
"I thought they really put it to us with second-chance points and
fast-break points (nine) in the third quarter," Popovich said. "They
really manhandled us."
NOTES: Spurs F Kawhi Leonard did not play because of the ligament
damage to his right hand that forced him to miss the past 11 games.
... Spurs rookie F Kyle Anderson, who started eight times in
Leonard's absence, missed the Detroit game with a sprained right
ankle he sustained in practice this week. "Nothing severe," San
Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. ... The Pistons' winning streak
includes victories against Indiana, Cleveland, Orlando, New York and
Sacramento. Now the schedule gets a little tougher. The game at San
Antonio starts a string in which the Pistons will play four times in
five days. ... Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said that the Spurs'
retention of all 14 players back from their 2014 championship gives
them a big edge on the court. "It really allows them to do a lot of
things other teams can't do," Van Gundy said.
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