By ,
Published November 20, 2014
The Indiana Pacers gutted out a hard-fought victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday and will try to keep the momentum when they visit the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night.
If Indiana's win over the Sixers was hard-fought, the term to describe Detroit's loss on Friday might be "gut-wrenching."
The Pistons fell 107-105 in double-overtime Friday night in Brooklyn against the Nets. Joe Johnson nailed a jumper from just inside the 3-point line as time expired in the second extra session to give the Nets the victory and the Pistons a crushing defeat.
"We showed great resolve, great fight and we competed extremely hard," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "There's no one happy with the consolation prize. Disappointed that we came up short, because in both regulation and both overtimes, we got the stop - we just couldn't finish the play."
The Pistons were 17 down, but took a six-point lead with 1:32 to go in regulation. There were breakdowns, missed free-throws and all-around sloppiness.
Brandon Knight had 22 points in just over 47 minutes to pace the Pistons. Rodney Stuckey chipped in 19 and Greg Monroe, who missed two crucial foul shots late in the second overtime, notched 17 points.
The loss was the third in a row for a Pistons team, who is 2-12 on the road, but 5-6 in The Palace.
The Pacers picked up their second consecutive victory on Friday with a home win over the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers were without their best player, guard Jrue Holiday, but the Pacers were led by two awesome performances.
George Hill recorded his first career triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds and Paul George scored 28 points, 14 of which came in the third quarter.
"Really good win by our club. A couple guys had exceptional nights on the offense end," said Pacers coach Frank Vogel. "That's what we want to do on the defense end, make them make tough shots. (We) held them to 26 points in the paint and it held up."
George has played extremely well over the last six games. He is averaging 25.0 ppg and is opening eyes.
"Paul has been playing this way for a couple weeks now and it's really exciting to see," said Vogel. "Combined with what he does on the defensive end, he's becoming a special player."
Roy Hibbert enjoyed his best game of the season against the Sixers with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
The Pacers have won three of their last four against their fellow Central Division colleagues, but the Pistons have taken three straight at home in this series.
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