THE Detroit Pistons prevented a sweep against the NBA’s worst teams as Reggie Jackson took care of the scoring while Andre Drummond covered the boards in turning back the Dallas Mavericks, 95-85, at the American Airlines Center on Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time).
After falling to the East’s worst Philadelphia team, Detroit took care of business against the West’s last place team Dallas with a 27-5 run bridging the third and fourth quarters. The telling rally helped turn a 64-52 deficit into a 79-69 lead for the Pistons with over five minutes left.
With the Mavs threatening a comeback and cutting the lead down to four, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope knocked down a three-pointer at the3:06 mark to bring the Pistons back up 86-79 before Jackson scored six straight for Detroit to hold off Dallas.
Drummond contributed just three points for Detroit, who improved to 14-13, but had 17 rebounds, 10 in the first quarter alone. He even outrebounded the entire Dallas team up until midway through the third quarter.
Jackson finished with 20 points for the Pistons, and Jon Leuer added a season-high 19 off the bench. Caldwell-Pope chipped in seven of his 11 markers in the fourth period.
Harrison Barnes led Dallas, who shares the NBA-worst record with Philadelphia at 6-19, with 19 points. Deron Williams chipped in 16 but shot just 3-of-13. Wes Matthews also struggled with his shooting and ended up with a season-low four markers.
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