The Detroit Pistons pride themselves on being able to stay competitive on any given night. After going down 18 points in the first half against the Phoenix Suns, the Pistons made a run at a comeback, but couldn’t generate the offense to keep up Thursday night.
Dillon Brooks scored a career-high 40 points while Detroit had one of its worst recent defensive performances and struggled to keep the game close in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 114-96 defeat in Phoenix.
Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 26 points and seven assists, but went 0-for-6 from the field in the fourth quarter. Jalen Duren had 23 points and 13 rebounds on 10-of-11 shooting for one of his more efficient nights, but his impact was also lessened late in the matchup.
Both teams started hot on offense, shooting 6-of-8 from the field, each. The Pistons (34-12) were getting most of their contributions from Duren, who was having his way in the paint, while the Suns (29-19) connected on their first four three-pointers.
Duren would go for a dozen points in the first, with Cunningham adding eight points and four assists before making way for the Detroit bench.
Phoenix slowed down from deep, but kept its lead intact against the Pistons with a 35-31 advantage at the end of the period.
Detroit came out in the second flat as the Suns went out on an 11-2 run that forced a timeout from coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
It didn’t help much as the Pistons trailed double digits for the rest of the half and sat with a 16-point deficit at the break. Outside of Duren and Cunningham, who would combine for 32 first-half points, the rest of Detroit’s roster shot 37% from the field and had 24 points.
The defense wasn’t faring much better as the Pistons allowed a season-high 72 first-half points, 24 coming from Brooks, while having just three steals and one block.
Cunningham led a strong start to the second half, finishing off a feed from Duren and providing on two early baskets to build a 7-2 run. As the Detroit defense began looking like its typical self, Cunningham went coast-to-coast for a dunk to close the gap down to seven after just four minutes.
Despite holding Phoenix without a made field goal for four minutes, the Pistons couldn’t overtake, only getting as close as three points off a transition floater from Cunningham.
Detroit followed by going completely silent after showing its first signs of life, only making one basket in the final seven-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter. Tobias Harris’ late corner three was a welcome sight, but had the Pistons down 12 going into the fourth quarter.
There wasn’t another run in the Pistons as Brooks finished off a career night for the Suns — who were without star guard Devin Booker — and held Detroit from getting closer than nine points in the final period.
With nearly four minutes to go and still trailing by 18 points, Bickerstaff went to his bench to finish out what ended up being the most lopsided defeat for the Pistons since a 21-point loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 27.
[**BOX SCORE**](https://go.skimresources.com?id=126006X1587345&xs=1&xcust=jacob-richman%7C&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nba.com%2Fgame%2Fdet-vs-phx-0022500685%2Fbox-score%23box-score&product_category=Sporting+Goods%3EAthletics%3EBasketball)
**Up next:** The Pistons close out their Western Conference road trip against the Golden State Warriors Friday night.