by Mike Whitaker
DETROIT – The Detroit Pistons didn’t make things easy on themselves, but they can feel good for a night after earning a nail-biter of a win.
The Pistons improved their record on the young season to 2-2 with a 96-94 victory over the Indiana Pacers, their second win in as many games against them and their first triumph at Little Caesars Arena. Derrick Rose scored the game-winning basket with 28.3 seconds remaining on a layup just seconds after Luke Kennard’s three-point shot brought the Pistons back to within a point of the Pacers’ lead. Detroit had led for the majority of the game before a late rally by the Pacers briefly put them ahead.
“It was a good win,” head coach Dwane Casey said after. “It was a gutcheck, that’s a good team over there.”
Rookie Christian Wood led the Pistons with 19 points on just 10 shots, while Andre Drummond accumulated a double-double with 18 points and 18 rebounds. T.J. Warren led the Pacers with 19 points and missed a potential game-winning three-point shot at the final buzzer.
Though Rose struggled from the floor on just 4-16 shooting, Casey trusted the former NBA MVP to come through when it mattered most.
“He’s going to be in there to make that decision as long as he’s here,” Casey said of Rose taking the game’s final shot. “He’s been there before as MVP of the League….he’s had nights like this and yet still found a way to win and that comes with his experience.”
Kennard was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time this season while point guard Reggie Jackson missed his second consecutive game with back tightness.
While he also didn’t have his best game (5-11 shooting, 14 points), he remains confident when he’s called upon to replace an injured regular in the lineup.
“We’re just going to continue to be aggressive,” Kennard said. “We have lineups that can change and we can mix things up…no matter which group we have out there, we just need to play hard and together and good things will come for us.”
The Pistons are back in action Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto against the defending NBA champion Raptors before returning home to face the new-look Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night.
