CLEVELAND, Dec 4 — Blake Griffin scored 24 points in 24 minutes and the visiting Detroit Pistons won consecutive games for the first time this season by clobbering the Cleveland Cavaliers 127-94 yesterday.
Andre Drummond racked up 17 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, five steals and four blocks for Detroit, which defeated San Antonio 132-98 on Sunday. It’s the first time in franchise history the Pistons have recorded back-to-back victories of 30 or more points.
Svi Mykhailiuk had 15 points, Langston Galloway scored 14 and Markieff Morris, and Derrick Rose added 12 apiece. Rose also contributed nine of the Pistons’ 33 assists.
Collin Sexton’s 22 points led the Cavaliers, who lost for the 10th time in 11 games. Kevin Porter Jr. had 12 points, and Tristan Thompson supplied 10 points and 14 rebounds. Cedi Osman and Jordan Clarkson each added their own 10 points for Cleveland.
Longtime University of Michigan coach and first-year Cavaliers head man John Beilein was coaching against the Pistons for the first time.
The Pistons shot 54.3 per cent from the field and made 51.4 per cent of their 3-pointers. The Cavaliers shot 42.7 per cent from the field and just 29.6 per cent from long distance.
The Pistons outscored the Cavs 30-18 in the second quarter en route to a 62-46 halftime lead. Griffin scored 19 points and Galloway had 11 by intermission.
The key sequence came at the start of the second, which Detroit opened with a 10-2 run, capped by a Galloway 3-pointer for a 42-30 lead with 9:58 left before halftime. The Pistons were up by double digits the rest of the way.
Detroit continued to build its lead in the third. Tony Snell opened the half with an alley-oop dunk off a Bruce Brown feed. A Drummond three-point play and a Luke Kennard 3-pointer increased the advantage to 24 at 72-48.
Another Drummond three-point play with 7:07 remaining in the quarter made it 80-52. Mykhailiuk hit a corner 3 off a Rose kickoff pass just before the third-quarter buzzer for a 97-68 lead.
A Morris 3-pointer with 7:16 left upped the Pistons’ lead to 35. — Reuters
