Kings 101, Pistons 92
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Center DeMarcus Cousins thrived under controversy. Forward Rudy Gay put a shooting slump behind him. And for a night, all was good with the Sacramento Kings again.
Cousins scored a season-high 33 points and Gay added 25, as the Kings took control from the beginning in a 101-92 victory over the Detroit Pistons at Sleep Train Arena on Wednesday. Point guard Rajon Rondo added 14 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Kings (2-7) held off a Detroit rally in the final quarter to snap a six-game losing streak.
Rondo played 48 minutes for the second straight contest, as Sacramento played its third straight game without guard Darren Collision (left hamstring strain) and its second in a row without guard Seth Curry (right ankle sprain). He finished with his second triple-double of the season and 24th of his career.
Sacramento built an 89-70 lead early in the final quarter before a late charge by Detroit nearly ruined the home team's night. The Pistons' used a 19-5 blitz over a 6:55 span and were as close as 94-89 on a driving lay-up by Reggie Jackson with 3:49 left.
But forward Marco Belinelli, Rondo and Cousins combined to make five free throws to push the lead back to 10 points with under two minutes left, ending Detroit's hopes. Sacramento won for the first time in their past five home games and avoided matching the worst nine-game start in Sacramento history.
Forward Marcus Morris scored 16 points to pace Detroit (5-3), which was unable to match its best start since the 2008-09 season. Center Andre Drummond, averaging 19.4 points and 19.6 rebounds in Detroit's first seven games, had 14 points and 17 rebounds.
Jackson, Detroit's leading scorer at 22.7 points per game entering the contest, tallied 16 on 5-for-15 shooting.
Cousins, who apologized before the game in a statement to Yahoo's Marc Spears for cussing at Karl in a postgame locker room tirade after Monday's 106-88 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, scored 15 points in the opening quarter. Gay, who was shooting 35 percent from the field, including 2-for-9 from 3-point territory, in the Sacramento's previous four contests, scored 12 on 5-for-6 shooting as the Kings jumped to a 36-23 first-quarter lead.
Overall, the two were 21-for-35 shooting, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Cousins matched the career high he set in the season opener by hitting 4 of 5 3-point shots.
NOTES: Pistons C Andre Drummond scored 136 points and grabbed 137 rebounds in Detroit's first seven games, the first player since Wilt Chamberlain in 1970 with the Lakers to total that many in both categories through his team's first seven games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. ... The Kings' first eight games were against Western Conference teams with a combined .586 winning percentage (34-24) through the first two weeks. The combined winning percentage of the next eight opponents, all from the supposedly weaker Eastern Conference, was .532 (33-29). ... Detroit takes an annual long trip every November, because the circus comes to the Palace. They have not finished the so-called circus trip above .500 since 2008. ... Longtime Kings executive Gordon "Scotty" Stirling, who spent 27 seasons with the team, died Wednesday at age 86. Stirling also was a general manager for the Golden State Warriors and the NFL's Oakland Raiders after once covering that team for the Oakland Tribune.