Game Rewind: Pacers 109, Pistons 113

The Indiana Pacers entered Monday's game in Detroit on a hot streak. Unfortunately for them, the Pistons were even hotter on Monday.

Detroit (29-30) made 18 3-pointers in a 113-109 win over their Central Division rivals. It was the third straight win for the Pistons and their seventh in their last eight games, a surge that has seen them climb back into playoff position and within a game of Brooklyn for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

The loss spoiled the Pacers' bid for their ninth win in their last 10 games. Bojan Bogdanovic led Indiana (40-21) with 24 in the defeat, while Domantas Sabonis added 23 points off the bench on 9-of-13 shooting and seven rebounds.

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The Pacers got on the board first on Monday on a pull-up jumper by Thaddeus Young, but Detroit responded by reeling off the next nine points to take the lead.

The Pistons dominated the opening frame thanks in large part to their 3-point shooting prowess. The hosts knocked down 7-of-10 attempts from beyond the arc in the first quarter. Luke Kennard hit back-to-back threes to stretch the lead to 17 points with 1:49 left in the quarter, then added another triple in the closing seconds to give Detroit a 36-20 advantage heading into the second.

"We've been notorious for getting off on slow starts...we can't come out like we're warming up," Young said. "We have to come out ready to jump on teams and be mentally prepared and physically prepared from the start."

The Blue & Gold got a big boost off the bench in the second quarter from reserve center Sabonis. The 6-11 Lithuanian scored 12 points over the first seven minutes of the period, including 10 straight in one stretch.

Indiana managed to trim its deficit to six points shortly thereafter. The Pistons pushed the margin back to 12 a few minutes later, but the Pacers closed the half with an 8-0 run to make it 55-51 at the break.

The Pacers kept the margin close for much of the third quarter, eventually tying the game at 75 on Darren Collison's layup with 3:16 remaining in the frame. But Detroit retook the lead on Wayne Ellington's 3-pointer 15 seconds later, the start of a 9-0 Pistons run.

Cory Joseph's jumper in the final minute of the third quarter stopped the bleeding and made it an 84-77 game heading into the fourth.

Bogdanovic's floater trimmed the deficit to 87-84 with 9:37 remaining. But once again, Detroit created some separation.

Over the next 1:40, Kennard hit a floater, Langston Galloway converted an old-fashioned three-point play, Blake Griffin drilled his fifth 3-pointer of the night, and Andre Drummond dunked off an alley oop from Ish Smith. Just like that, the Pistons had reeled off a 10-0 run to extend their lead back to double digits.

The Pacers were unable to get back within single digits until Bogdanovic's three made it an eight-point game with 1:14 remaining.

Things went from bad to worse shortly thereafter, as Sabonis rolled his left ankle when he stepped on Drummond's foot and limped off into the locker room. He was initially diagnosed with a sprain and did not return to the floor before the final buzzer.

The Blue & Gold mounted an admirable rally over the final minute, trimming the deficit to four in the final seconds, but ran out of time in their comeback attempt.

"We're going to fight until there's no time left on the clock," Pacers head coach Nate McMillan said after the loss. "We're going to play. We just didn't have enough tonight."

Drummond led all scorers with 26 points on 12-of-21 shooting and 16 rebounds, nine of them coming on the offensive glass.

Griffin, meanwhile, recorded a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Kennard added 19 points off the bench while going 5-for-8 from 3-point range.

Five players finished in double figures for Indiana in the loss. Collison had 21 points, five assists, and three steals. Wesley Matthews added 14 points, while Young tallied 10 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks.

After missing the past two games with a bruised left hip, Myles Turner was back in the starting lineup on Monday night for Indiana. The 6-11 center had just seven points on 3-of-10 shooting in 29 minutes, but did add three blocks to his league-leading total.

The Pacers will wrap up a three-game road trip on Wednesday night in Dallas before returning home to Indianapolis to host Minnesota on the second night of a back-to-back.

Sabonis' 23 points tied his output on Jan. 4 in Chicago for his second-highest scoring game this season. He had a season-best 30 points on Oct. 31 in New York.

Bogdanovic topped 20 points for the 22nd time this season and the seventh time in 10 games in February.

Griffin recorded his second triple-double this season and the 10th of his career. Though the Pacers held him to 1-of-8 shooting inside the 3-point arc, the All-Star forward went 5-for-10 from long distance.

Indiana outscored the Pistons 48-38 in the paint.

Aside from Sabonis, Indiana did not get much production from its bench. Tyreke Evans, Cory Joseph, TJ Leaf, and Doug McDermott combined for just nine points on 3-for-15 shooting.

The Pacers led for just 19 seconds on Monday, from the 11:13 mark to 10:54 remaining in the opening quarter.

"This is the type of basketball that we're going to see for the rest of the season...Tonight you've got a team that's holding down the seventh spot trying to play themselves into the playoffs just as we are. You're going to see this type of game and you've got to expect that. I thought we kind of lost our composure during this game. We've got to be able to play through that and play this type of game." -McMillan

"Tonight they made shots, they jumped out on us so we felt like we were contesting a lot of their shots and they were making them still. I know specifically, Wesley (Matthews) was contesting a lot of Wayne Ellington's shots and he made a few there over him. You're going to have games like that, it's going to be like that sometimes. You've just got to stay the course." -Young

"It left a bad taste in our mouth the last time that we played these guys. They outworked us in pretty much all facets of the game. We were able to come out and impose our will in a lot of different ways. I thought we did a good job of like you said, playing physical and executing everything we wanted to do." -Griffin

"We have to play and we have been playing like that for a couple of weeks, with that toughness, that offensive approach of screening, helping the teammate, not caring who makes the shot. But at the end of the day we are making shots, so it makes it easier to give it up. A lot of that comes with the rhythm and moving the ball, and screening and all those hard things, we are doing those things hard right now." -Piston head coach Dwane Casey

The Pistons outscored Indiana by 24 points from 3-point range on Monday. Detroit went 18-for-41 from beyond the arc, the 13th time a Pacers opponent has made at least 18 3-pointers. All 13 of those games have happened in the last four seasons, including five this season.

Indiana heads to Dallas to wrap up its road trip against Luke Doncic and the Mavericks on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 8:30 PM ET.

After a three-game road trip, the Pacers will return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse to host Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:00 PM ET. Find Tickets »