It was a tale of two halves for Sacramento as they only scored 36 points in the 2nd half despite scoring 70 in the first on 70% shooting.
Will Bynum was the difference maker for Detroit, making all sorts of key plays and hitting big shots. Bynum scored 18 points and had 7 assists for the game, and had a key block on Tyreke Evans at the end of the game to preserve the lead for Detroit.
For Sacramento, nobody got it going in the 2nd half. Tyreke Evans only scored 7 after an 18 point 1st half, and he also, and Jason Thompson had two points to tie his season high of 22. DeMarcus Cousins had some big moments late in the game, and finished with 14 points, 8 boards and 3 assists, but he only played 19 minutes due to foul trouble.
Beno Udrih, for all his offensive consistency, is still a terrible defender, and the Pistons exploited that matchup. Both Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum got to the rim almost at will. Ben Gordon also was able to take advantage of Udrih, scoring 16 off the bench.
Detroit’s bench (led by Bynum, Villanueva and Gordon) outscored Sacramento’s 52-30, and the Pistons also had a FT advantage of 8 points. The Kings got to the line (27 times) almost as much as Detroit (29), but were only able to hit 51.9% of their attempts.
Sacramento finishes up the road trip on Monday against the Atlanta Hawks.