Detroit Pistons Open NBA Cup With 110-94 Win Over Brooklyn Nets

On Friday night, the Detroit Pistons took to the road to open their NBA Cup slate with a 110-94 win over the Brooklyn Nets in Group Play. Although that score line could portray the image of a relatively lopsided victory, the Pistons had to fight back and mount another double-digit comeback in order to begin their cup chase 1-0 against a lively-yet-winless Brooklyn team. 

Early on, the Pistons had trouble knocking down their shots and allowed for the Nets to hop in the lead during the first quarter, but Detroit’s defense predictably clamped down after that to swing the momentum back in their direction. In the second and third quarters, the Pistons defense held the Nets to a total of 38 points combined, which underscores the pressure that Detroit used to spark easier looks in transition. 

From an impact standpoint, no one stepped up to the plate more so than Ron Holland II did in Brooklyn with an 18-point effort off the bench. Entering the game, Holland was yet to connect on a deep ball yet this season, but all it took was for the third-year wing to see the ball go through the hoop one time. Quickly, Holland turned one triple into two as the Pistons stretched their lead during the second half, but the G-League Ignite product was an influential character on both ends of the floor with five stocks to boot. 

“If you don’t get stops, you can’t get out and run,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the victory. 

Towards the end of the game, Holland grabbed a loose ball for the Pistons and threw it down with rim-shaking authority to put an exclamation mark on Detroit’s NBA Cup win. 

”It felt really good,” Holland said of his dunk. “I [saw] an opening, and I’m an energy guy so anytime I see an opening I try to take it to the rim.”

On top of Holland’s reserve effort, the Pistons also benefited from Duncan Robinson’s two-way performance versus the Nets with 17 points and three steals to his credit, but it was Cade Cunningham who led Detroit with 20 points overall after lightning the lamp for 30 last time out. As the head of the snake for the Pistons, Cunningham helped guide the team out of their deficit and steered the ship as Detroit built a near-30-point advantage in the second half. 

Since margin of victory is a factor in the mid-season tournament, the Nets played hard throughout and were able to hit a couple three-pointers courtesy of Danny Wolf towards the end of the fourth quarter to cut the Pistons edge down to 14 points, but Detroit had long secured a win by that point. 

In his first game fully removed from the injury report, Ausar Thompson looked fully healthy as he contributed mightily from beginning to end. AT made a series of athletic leaps to the rim and moved with a swiftness that would indicate his ankle had fully healed in what was an 11-point, eight-rebound, six-assist game for the dynamic fourth-year wing. In fact, Thompson showed off his dexterity by sinking a crafty left-handed reverse lay-up after floating under the rim to the other side of the backboard, so AT made sure to meet his quota of sensational highlights in the Pistons win over the Nets. 

Of course, the Pistons were still missing All-Star center Jalen Duren, so Paul Reed took his spot in the starting lineup at the five. JD is slated to be reevaluated about one week from now. 

Moving forward, the Pistons stand atop the Eastern Conference at 5-1 in the regular season and have a road game against the Charlotte Hornets scheduled for Monday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 pm.