Both teams didn’t play so well in the first half, which explains a pretty low scoring affair. Each team scored 44 in the first half, with the possibility of another close finish.

But then, Blake Griffin in the third and hot three point shooting in the fourth from the rest of the Detroit team would seal the deal. Sacramento made mini runs but were down too much to make any real comeback.

Observations by Quarter

First Quarter:

Second Quarter:

Third Quarter:

Fourth Quarter:

Best Performers

Buddy Hield got a start in place of injured Bogdan Bogdanovic and had another solid performance. He led the team in scoring with 20, he had four assists and he led the team in rebounding with six. He shot 8/15 overall, 3/6 from deep in 32 minutes.

De’Aaron Fox shot the ball very well tonight as he scored 16 points to go with four assists and three rebounds. He was 8/11 from the field in 31 minutes.

Justin Jackson also shot the ball very well en route to a solid 15 point game on 7/9 shooting. It was a good game for Jackson to build on.

Notable Performers

Skal Labissiere had ten points and five rebounds on 4/10 shooting in 25 minutes.

Willie Cauley-Stein had nine points, five assists and six rebounds.

Garrett Temple was surprisingly non-existent today. He was 1/10 from the field, 0/6 from the field for two points.

Notable Stats

Shooting: Detroit shot 47%, Sacramento shot 46%. However, Detroit scored 14 threes compared to six for Sacramento. Detroit also converted 18 free throws to Sacramento’s four.

Non-shooting: Detroit led in rebounds with 44-39. Sacramento led in assists with 23-17. Sacramento led in steals 7-6 and Detroit led in blocks with 5-3.

The Nasty Stats: The Kings had more turnovers (13-9) and more fouls (21-11) than the Pistons.

Quick Takeaways

Hooray for Vince Carter! Really the only positive thing from today that wasn’t a performance from one of the youngsters.

Where was Bruno Caboclo?

Blake Griffin went off with 26-7-9. Drummond only had four points but had 16 rebounds.

Next Game

The Kings host the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday at 7:00 PM PST.

The Game in One Sentence

I’m disappointed with how this turned out. You can take this one.