DETROIT -- One night they’re up, one night they’re down as the Detroit Pistons followed up one of their best games of the season with a rocky outing against the Sacramento Kings. After falling behind by 24 points at halftime, the Pistons fell 129-107.
The Pistons (3-10) cobbled together a few runs throughout the matchup to briefly cut into the Kings’ (6-8) lead but they just couldn’t keep up with the scoring from outside. The Kings fired on all cylinders from long range to knock down more than 50 percent of their shots by the end of the first half.
Detroit’s offense could not get going after going basket for basket with Sacramento to start the game. It ended the first quarter with just 12 points, the fewest it has scored in an opening frame this season. By comparison, the Kings scored 31 points in the first quarter, which did not make things easier for the Pistons down the stretch.
The Pistons broke out of their slump in the second quarter but with the Kings heating up from three. After a low-scoring first, Detroit went on to score 96 points in the three remaining quarters. Unfortunately for the Pistons, it was not enough for them to close the 20-point gap.
Coming out the half the Pistons tried to slow the Kings down limiting them to three shots from distance in the third. But Kings’ sharpshooter Buddy Hield continued to provide his team a punch off the bench that almost sucked the air out of any Pistons’ attempts to cut the deficit.
He scored 22 points of the bench on 6-of-10 shooting from three-point range. He helped the Kings to finish the making 48.5 percent of their shots from deep.
The Pistons had some solid efforts from Saddiq Bey and Cade Cunningham, who combined for 53 of the team’s points. Bey scored a season-high 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting overall and 4-of-9 shooting from three. He also made six of his seven attempts at the free-throw line.
Cunningham, like a number of the team’s last few games, pushed the pace in the fourth quarter to try and get the Pistons back into the game. He ended the night with career-high 25 points after knocking down a pair of threes and doling out three assists in the fourth quarter. He ended the night making 50 percent of his shots in the field (10-of-20) and sank five of his 11 shots from three. He also ended the night with eight rebounds and a career-high eight assists.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Cunningham joins Grant Hill (4x) and Dave Bing (1x) as the only Pistons rookies with those statistics in a game in team history. He is the first Pistons rookie with 25 points and 5 rebounds, assists and three-pointers in a game in team history.
The rookie continues to find his rhythm in the final minutes of games.
Detroit will look to bounce back from Monday night’s loss when they take on the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.
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