Mavericks at Pistons
Sustained success is a problem for the Detroit Pistons, who followed up an invigorating win with a big letdown to close out a two-game trip on Monday. The Pistons will try to go into the All-Star break feeling positive about themselves when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.
Detroit came back from 16 points down in the fourth quarter to edge the Toronto Raptors 102-101 on Sunday but could not find the same spark on the second night of a back-to-back and fell at Milwaukee on Monday. "Our offense was pathetic," Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy bluntly told reporters. "Their defense was good, but we knew how they would play and what was open. We didn’t have any focus on getting it there. (We committed) 17 turnovers. It was just a miserable night all around." The Mavericks endured their own letdown on Monday with a 111-98 loss to the Boston Celtics that snapped a two-game winning streak and came on the heels of one of their best performances in Saturday's 112-80 win over Orlando. “Every game is very important to us, and I think that right now we’re a game-by-game team," Mavericks forward Harrison Barnes told reporters after the loss. "We have to approach things whistle to whistle, and we just have to do a better job of starting off games."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), FSN Detroit
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (22-33): Dallas is slowly climbing out of the deep hole it dug early in the season and is getting a big boost from point guard Yogi Ferrell, who scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 33 minutes off the bench on Monday. The Indiana product is averaging 15.2 points in nine games since joining the team on his original 10-day contract last month. "He's a professional basketball player," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told reporters of Ferrell. "He's supposed to play hard and play well. ... He's doing his job. His job is to play hard, make open shots, make simple plays and guard the best little guy on nights like (Monday). ... This is his job. He's supposed to be doing this."
ABOUT THE PISTONS (26-30): Detroit small forward Tobias Harris was one of the stars of Sunday's comeback and led the team with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting in the win before slipping to six points on 3-of-11 the next night. "I thought our focus wasn’t as great as it needs to be today, especially in a game that we needed to win," Harris told reporters after the loss. "This would’ve been a big one for us just be building a consistency that we need to have as a team and putting some games together. When you step on the floor, you’ve got to be ready for whatever and tonight I don’t think we were as mentally focused as we needed to be." Shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer on Sunday, was off as well with seven points on 2-of-10 shooting Monday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pistons PF Marcus Morris went 4-of-8 from 3-point range on Monday after combining to go 2-of-13 from beyond the arc in the previous three games.
2. Mavericks C Andrew Bogut (hamstring) missed the last eight games and is likely to sit out Wednesday despite traveling with the team.
3. The road team took each of the last six in the series, with Detroit earning a 95-85 win at Dallas on Dec. 14.