Pistons at Nuggets
The Detroit Pistons are capable of beating the best team in the NBA on one night and looking like a lottery team the next. The Pistons will try to find some consistency when they continue a four-game road trip by visiting the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.
Detroit knocked off the Golden State Warriors 113-95 on Jan. 16 but followed that up with losses in two of the next three games, including a 115-99 loss at New Orleans on the second night of a back-to-back on Thursday. “So now we had a great effort against Golden State, we came back and gave nothing against Chicago,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters. “And then we got a good win (Wednesday) night and came back and gave nothing (Thursday). We look like a team that is firmly committed to being mediocre.” The Nuggets are somewhere below mediocre at the moment but keep putting themselves in position to win. Denver handed Golden State one of its losses as well but lost three of four after that, with the three losses coming by a total of 10 points.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, Altitude (Denver)
ABOUT THE PISTONS (23-20): Detroit is allowing 113.3 points in the last three games and gave up 72 points in the first half to the Pelicans on Thursday. “We’re not really trying,” forward Marcus Morris told reporters. “We are coming out with no energy. Everybody has to hold each other accountable. We come out and aren’t playing hard on both sides of the ball. After a while it gets real old.” The Pistons have dropped four of their last six games and held only one of those six opponents – the Warriors – under 100 points.
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (16-27): Denver found itself in an 18-point hole before the end of the first quarter on Thursday, and coach Mike Malone is looking for a greater sense of urgency at the start. “We're paid to win games,” Malone told reporters. “For me to have to call a timeout in the first quarter and beg and plead and demand our guys to play hard and to play with a sense of urgency, to play with a sense of physicality, when I have to do that we're in trouble.” Thursday’s loss dropped the Nuggets to 3-3 on their eight-game homestand, with Detroit and Atlanta coming up to finish the extended stay.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Nuggets F Kenneth Faried has recorded back-to-back double-doubles for the first time this season.
2. Pistons C Andre Drummond’s latest double-double streak is at seven straight games.
3. The home team has taken the last four in the series.