The Detroit Pistons led by double digits throughout the second half on the way to a 113-95 victory over Golden State at The Palace on Saturday, handing the Warriors just their fourth loss of the season.
Golden State’s Draymond Green tried to play mind games with Detroit’s fourth-year centre Andre Drummond but nothing the Warriors did could throw the fired-up Pistons off their game in front of a capacity crowd.
“Draymond was talking, wanted to talk and wanted to do some extra curricular stuff after the play,” Pistons coach Stan van Gundy said. “It was good. Andre wasn’t having it.”
Drummond stayed poised with a 14-point, 21-rebound, three-block performance.
“That’s the way he plays. There’s no hard feelings,” said Drummond, who notched his league-high 34th double-double. “It’s like playing your best friend. You can talk if you want, it doesn’t mean you mean it.
“You’re just trying to get the best of him. I intimidate people by the way I play. I don’t need to talk.”
The Pistons’ starting backcourt of Reggie Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 20 points each. Jackson had a team-high eight assists and Caldwell-Pope sparked the defence effort with three steals.
Golden State (37-4) shot a season-low 36.2 percent from the field, just the second time the league’s top offence shot below 40 percent this season.
“We know we’re capable of beating anybody,” Van Gundy said.
“The difference between the Golden States, the San Antonios and the Clevelands of the world and where we are right now is you’ve got to do it night after night after night.
“That’s our challenge, to find that on a more consistent basis.”
Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, the NBA’s leading scorer, had another big night with 38 points, seven rebounds and five assists, but he did not get much help as Golden State lost for the second time in three games.
Klay Thompson scored 24 but no one else had more than 10.
Green thought the Warriors tried to do too much individually.
“I don’t think it’s a lack of trust, I think the ball’s been sticking a little more than usual, not just this game but the last few games,” said Green, who was held to five points, 10 below his average.
“(Ball movement) is something we have to get back to doing.”
Warriors interim coach Luke Walton thought his team failed to match the Pistons’ intensity.
“They were coming after us tonight and we weren’t ready to fight back,” he said. “In this league, if you’re not ready to fight back, you’re going to get blown out and that’s what happened to us.”
Marcus Morris had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, Aron Baynes added 12 points and Ersan Ilyasova chipped in 10 for the Pistons (22-18).
Pistons’ Brandon Jennings suffered an ankle injury during the second quarter and did not return. Van Gundy did not think it was serious but expected Jennings to get an MRI.
© Reuters
