Brandon Knight stars as the Detroit Pistons drop the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-97: NBA Recap
Brandon Knight scored a career high 30 points and the Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-97 here at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday night.
"It's always fun to play the Cavs and go against all the players you know. They did a great job contesting my shots in the first half -- not that they didn't in the second -- but I was more aggressive taking advantage of my opportunities."
Pistons guard Knight commented after the win.
Tayshaun Prince scored 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, Greg Monroe added 11 points while Jason Maxiell chipped in with 10 points for the winning cause.
Jeremy Pargo paced the Cavaliers with the team-high 24 points, C.J. Miles dropped 15 points and Anderson Varejao posted another double-double, his 11th double-double in the last 12 games, with 16 points and 13 rebounds
on the night.
Cleveland kept the Pistons in check early in the game; in fact, the Cavs were leading by three points at halftime. The Pistons gained a decent advantage in the third period and then held off the Cavs in the final one to emerge
victorious.
Alonzo Gee scored one from behind the arc in the early going of the first period to tie the score on 5. It was close early on as the score was tied on 7 and then again on 9. The Pistons started pulling ahead later in the period
and a Knight jump shot had them leading 19-14. Detroit were up 25-20 before a Tyler Zeller layup for the Cavaliers near the end of the period closed the gap by two.
An Andre Drummond layup early in the period pushed the Pistons up 29-22, but the Cavaliers were right on their heels and went for on 8-0 burst to snatch the lead going up 30-29. The Cavs started pulling ahead slightly after that
and Pargo scored 5 straight points to put them up by 46-36 with 3:27 left in the quarter. The Pistons applied breaks on the Cavs’ charge and came back late in the period to reduce the deficit down to 49-52 at halftime.
Cleveland got off to a great start in the second half; an 8-0 spurt put them ahead on 62-58. But Detroit bounced back and made it a one point game at 63-64, on their way to a 76-70 lead at the end of third.
Charlie Villanueva dropped a three pointer early in the fourth period to put the Pistons up by 81-72 and a Knight layup moments later pushed their advantage to 88-74. The Cavaliers tried their best to come back into the game and
a 9 nil spurt got them to within 89-94, but the Pistons held them off to win by 104-97.
Tags: