by Mike Whitaker
DETROIT – The Detroit Pistons weren’t in a prime position entering Saturday night’s home matchup against the Brooklyn Nets.
After all, they’d just received word that guard Derrick Rose would be unavailable with a hamstring injury, meaning they’d be without three prime pieces of the team along with Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin and Tim Frazier.
It didn’t matter. Detroit earned their second home victory on the young season with a gritty 113-109 win over Brooklyn to improve their record to 3-4. They were able to overcome a 14-point deficit and powered their way back into the win column with a 15-0 run in the third quarter to give them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Center Andre Drummond led the way for Detroit with 25 points and 20 rebounds, his 7th straight double-double.
“He’s combining his rebounding with some scoring, which is gravy for us,” an elated head coach Dwane Casey explained. “I’ve never questioned his effort.”
Bruce Brown set a career high 22 points while playing 40 minutes. Luke Kennard added 24 points, his sixth game with at least 10 points. For the Nets, Kyrie Irving led the team with his first triple-double in a Brooklyn uniform (20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) in a losing effort.
For Kennard, he entered tonight’s contest as one of only eight NBA players with at least 17 made 3-point shots.
“Luke was their (Brooklyn’s) key guy that they were trying to get out of the game,” Casey said. “They were holding, grabbing, not letting him come off pin downs and that is where his net step of growth is.”
“I’m just proud of the guys,” a humble Kennard said. “The way we fought to come back and win that one…that was pretty big.”
The Pistons are back in action on Monday night at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. against the Wizards.
