DETROIT — Coming off a contentious loss to the Houston Rockets, the Detroit Pistons got right back to playing their brand of basketball.
Hosting the Sacramento Kings, the Pistons got a major performance out of Cade Cunningham with 29 points, 11 assists and five rebounds — after a string of rough outings — to push Detroit to a 139-116 win Sunday afternoon.
Jalen Duren provided support with 18 points and six rebounds, while veterans Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson posted 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Duren gave the Pistons (33-11) a quick start converting back-to-back three-point plays on the opening possessions. The Kings (12-35) had plenty of offense to respond and built a seven point lead with a 9-of-13 shooting start from the field.
Coming off a rough 22% three-point shooting performance against the Houston Rockets, Detroit had a strong showing going 16-for-31 in the game and getting back into the matchup thanks to three first-half makes by Harris.
The veteran forward drained one at the first-quarter buzzer to level the game at 35, despite Sacramento shooting 16% better from the field.
The Pistons came out aggressive in the second quarter behind Cunningham, who’d been struggling over his last four games. A turnaround bank shot set off a 12-point quarter for the All-Star guard, looking more like his old self while playing through a nagging wrist injury.
Even with Cunningham and Duren leading the way with 19 and 17 points in the first half, respectively, it was an all-around effort that helped the Pistons go up 78-65 at the break.
Nine Pistons players scored in the second quarter and they had assists on nine of their first 12 makes of the period before Cunningham started creating for himself and pushing Detroit well in the lead.
Early in the second half, the Pistons found an 8-0 run, ballooning their lead out to 17 points after Ausar Thompson finished an alley-oop from Robinson.
Cunningham and Robinson led the effort from deep in the third quarter, hitting two each as the team hit six of their eight shots from behind the arc. After shooting 70% from the field in the quarter, the Pistons were 20 points in front going into the fourth.
It didn’t require much to put the Kings away as Detroit got seven points from Javonte Green in the period and another five from Ron Holland. Detroit would lose Holland for the final five minutes after getting ejected following an altercation with Sacramento’s Keon Ellis where he pushed him to the court after getting tied up.
Holding their 20-plus point advantage down the stretch, the Pistons were able to empty the bench for the final few minutes and secure their eighth win in January.
BOX SCORE
Up next: The Pistons hit the road for the rest of the week out West, beginning with a Tuesday-night matchup against the Denver Nuggets.