Durant buries Pistons
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Detroit Pistons are a much-improved team after Joe Dumars rebuilt the roster once again over the summer.
That doesn’t mean they are ready to knock off teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Detroit played the Thunder tough into the third quarter Friday night, but Oklahoma City’s superior depth took over down the stretch, especially once Andre Drummond and Josh Smith got into foul trouble. Rookie Steven Adams finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while fellow post reserve Nick Collison had nine points and four rebounds in a 119-110 victory.
“We were just trying to keep it simple and try not to make mistakes,” Collison said of his partnership with the New Zealander.
Detroit’s biggest problem, though, was trying to stop Kevin Durant. Their only hope of that was Smith. He sat out large portions of the second half and Durant finished with 37 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
“We weren’t hitting shots and they were hurting us on the offensive glass, but it is really hard to adjust your lineup to fix those things when you are facing Kevin,” said Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks, who spent the last four years as an assistant with the Thunder.
“You always have to have someone on the floor that can guard him, so that limits your options when you want to change things.”
Raptors fall
INDIANAPOLIS — Paul George scored 17 of his 23 points in the third quarter and the Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors 91-84 Friday night to improve to 6-0 and match the best start in franchise history.
Roy Hibbert added a seasonhigh 20 points and seven rebounds as the Pacers remained the NBA’s lone undefeated team.
Rudy Gay scored a seasonhigh 30 points on 12- of- 26 shooting for the Raptors, who lost their third straight to fall to 2-4. Amir Johnson added 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Raptors shot 39.5 per cent from the field, becoming the sixth consecutive opponent Indiana has held to 40 per cent shooting or worse.
The Pacers improved to 6-0 for the first time since the 197071, when the club played in the ABA. They rallied from a halftime deficit for the fifth time this season.