The Indiana Pacers shot off on a 12-0 run late in the fourth quarter to break open the game, topping the Detroit Pistons to sweep the season series, 115-109.
Malcolm Brogdon, Edmond Sumner, and Caris LaVert combined for 73 of the Pacers’ 115 points. Doug McDermott came off the bench to add 18 points on 7-10 shooting.
Jerami Grant led the Pistons with 25 points, but shot 9-23 to do it. Mason Plumlee put together a solid all-around game with 17 points, a career-high 21 assists, 5 assists, and 2 blocks.
Rebound Battle
Despite the scoreboard, the Pistons dominated the Pacers on the glass. The Pistons pulled down a season-high 62 boards, including 15 offensive rebounds.
Mason Plumlee’s 21 combined with Saddiq Bey and Hamidou Diallo to pull down 42 boards, outrebounding the Pacers’ total of 39 by themselves.
“I think we definitely should have won the game,” Grant said. “We had a couple of mental lapses throughout the game, but they got it from us.”
Hot Pacers Start
Sumner’s 10 first-quarter points helped the Pacers jump out to a 35-25 lead at the end of one. The team’s hot shooting continued into the second quarter as they opened up a first-half lead as large as 15.
The Pistons looked slow to start the third and final game of their road trip. They spent less than one minute of game time in the first quarter leading.
Pistons Close the Gap
Just as the Pacers hit their largest lead of the game, the Pistons responded. They tore off on a 15-2 run, including 12 straight points, to pull within 2.
Another run, this time tallying 12-2, gave the Pistons a 3 point lead at halftime. The Pistons did a tremendous job sharing the ball on these runs, with 6 different players scoring between the two.
Pacers Pull Away
Both the third and much of the fourth quarter were evenly matched and hard-fought. Until the Pacers’ final run, the lead for either team never topped 8 and rarely went above 4 throughout the second half.
With under 5 minutes to go in the game, however, the Pacers got hot. LaVert, Sumner, Brogdon, and T.J. McConnell scored or assisted on the team’s four buckets on their 12-0 run. McConnell also grabbed one of his game-high 5 steals along the way.
The run gave the team a game-high 8-point lead and secured the win for the Pacers.
Turnovers Tell the Tale
At the end of the day, the turnover differential was the most meaningful statistic of the game. The Pacers committed only 5 turnovers while forcing 18 from the Pistons.
Including his 1 block, McConnell produced more turnovers than the entire Pistons team. On top of that, the Pacers were able to turn the Pistons’ turnovers into 22 points; the Pistons scored just 8 off TOs.
Despite the Pistons’ 26 assists on 39 made baskets, their ball-safety problems proved too much for them.
“Eighteen turnovers to 22 points, that’s the ballgame, you can look at a lot of other things, rebounding advantage, but when you give that many opportunities back to them,” Head Coach Dwayne Casey said. “It’s unconscionable, we’ve got to understand time, score, situation, what’s open, playing in a crowd, passing in a crowd.”
Up Next
The Pistons will move on to face the Hawks at home at 7 p.m. on Monday, where they will attempt to break their 3-game losing streak.
The Pacers will attempt to make it 3 wins in a row in Orlando tomorrow at 8 p.m.
