Auburn Hills, MI – Greg Monroe led the way with 24 points and 87, at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday.
"It's more or less effort; that's basically it," Monroe said about his performance. "That's what everybody preaches, effort and position. That's something I take pride in, so what you see on the court is just me working hard, trying to do my job."
Detroit had five scorers in double figures including 17 points from Rodney Stuckey and 11 each from Tayshaun Prince and Jonas Jerebko. The Pistons have now won two straight after dropping seven in a row.
Trevor Ariza paced the Hornets attack with 26 points and Greivis Vasquez added 14 points and nine assists as the Hornets dropped their sixth straight road game. New Orleans has now lost 14 of its last 15 contests.
"Well, this is the dog days of the NBA right now," said Hornets head coach Monty Williams. "A lot of players are kind of going through the motions and tired and we certainly looked that way tonight. I thought we'd be a bit fresher because I gave them the day off yesterday and maybe that hurt us."
Detroit looked as though it would pull away in the fourth, ripping off 10 straight points to take a 75-65 lead, but Vasquez came up with seven straight for the Hornets to pull them back within three, 75-72, with 5:49 left in the game. Al-Farouq Aminu's two free throws made it a one-point margin.
However, the Pistons had one more run left in them as an 8-2 push, capped by Stuckey's jumper gave them an 83-76 lead with under two minutes to go in the contest.
Jason Maxiell's put-back dunk with under a minute to go gave the Pistons an 85-80 lead. The Hornets would get two good looks from deep, but they were off the mark, and the Pistons secured the second rebound.
Monroe calmly stepped to the line and knocked down both free throws to put the game on ice for the Pistons.
The first quarter ended with a Jerebko layup to give Detroit a 25-23 lead.
Monroe scored the Pistons' final eight points of the second quarter but Ariza's 17 first half points were too much as the Hornets took a 44-41 lead into intermission.
A Walker Russell jumper with one second on the clock made the score 65-61 as Detroit took a four-point advantage into the final stanza.
Game Notes
The Hornets will look to bounce back at home against Sacramento on Monday, while the Pistons will travel to New Jersey on Wednesday...Detroit's Brandon Knight left the game with a broken nose after taking an elbow to the nose halfway through the first quarter...The Hornets have lost four of last five at Detroit...Detroit dominated the points in the paint 52-36.
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