Suns at Pistons
The Detroit Pistons remain capable of putting together strong performances against quality opponents, they just don't do it with much consistency. The Pistons will try to get the effort and execution to swing in the other direction and bounce back from a tough road loss when they host the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
Detroit rallied from a 21-point deficit and earned a 128-123 overtime home win over the Denver Nuggets - a Western Conference contender - on Sunday before going to Memphis the next night and falling flat in a 96-82 setback. "It's a painful experience for me," Pistons coach Dwane Casey told reporters after the loss. "I'm not used to this. It's been a long time since I've gone through this. Hopefully, it hurts them and not just, 'OK, let's go to the next game and see what happens.' You don't want to build bad habits because that stays in your locker room if you're not careful and that's what I'm trying to prevent." Phoenix dropped its last three games and fell to 0-2 on its three-game road trip with a 119-97 loss at Brooklyn on Monday. "I can't really speak too much on it because I'm in the flow of playing every other day, practicing every other day," Phoenix forward Kelly Oubre Jr. told the Arizona Republic. "But it's evident that we need to learn how to win. In order to learn how to win or be a great team or a solid team that we want to be, we have to follow that each and every day. It has to be our bread and butter, but sometimes we stray off that and the results show."
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Arizona, FS Detroit
ABOUT THE SUNS (20-30): Star guard Devin Booker, who owns 16 turnovers and 15 assists during the three-game slide, had a string of five straight games scoring at least 27 points come to an end when he was held to 11 points on 3-of-15 shooting against the Nets. Center Deandre Ayton did his best to pick up the slack with 25 points and 17 rebounds in the loss and posted a double-double in each of the first two games of the trip. "We've just got to keep going after it," Ayton told reporters. "We can't stop. I think in these games, we had those down quarters where we (missed) chances to get a run and get some momentum. We've just got to stay focused. That was our biggest deal."
ABOUT THE PISTONS (18-34): Detroit was playing shorthanded with Blake Griffin (knee), Luke Kennard (knee), Derrick Rose (groin), Markieff Morris (hip) and Svi Mykhailiuk (hip) sitting out on Monday and ran out of gas in the third quarter, when it managed 10 points on 3-of-25 shooting. "Ugly. Ugly's the best word I could use," Casey told reporters. "It was the opposite of the way we moved the ball yesterday." The star for the Pistons in the loss was center Andre Drummond, who collected 25 points and 18 rebounds in his 41st double-double and continues to play well despite his name getting tossed around in trade rumors.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Oubre Jr. is averaging 21.5 points over the last five games, bringing his season mark to 18.5.
2. Rose, Mykhailiuk and Morris are all considered day-to-day for the Pistons.
3. Detroit owns a five-game winning streak in the series.