NEW YORK, NOV 1 (US): James Harden scored 18 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists for the Brooklyn Nets in a 117-91 defeat of the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night.
Harden is Brooklyn’s all-time leader with 13 triples, and joins Larry Bird as the second-highest NBA all-time leader with 59.
“James was fantastic,” said Nets coach Steve Nash.
He helped him as Kevin Durant scored 23 points before being sent off in the third quarter. Durant became the third player in Nets NBA history to score at least 20 points in the team’s first seven games to start the season. LaMarcus Aldridge added 16 off the bench. De’Andre Bembry contributed 15, and Joe Harris finished with 12.
“We’ve shown some signs of being a really good team,” Harden said. “We are far from where we would like to be.”
While Brooklyn’s team improved to 4-3 with their second straight win, Detroit fell to 1-5 with the loss.
We didn’t play with any activity,” said Corey Joseph, who led the Pistons with 13 points.
He later said that the Pistons “have to play harder”.
Josh Jackson scored 12, and Jeramy Grant 11, according to Associated Press reports.
After Jackson dropped a drag jump to tie the game at 32 in the second quarter, the Nets outplayed the Pistons 32-17 during the last 10:40 to go into the first half with a 64-49 advantage.
The Nets didn’t let up in the second half, extending their lead to as high as 30. Brooklyn’s dominance was enveloped by Pembry Alley jammed from feeding Harden with 4.5 seconds remaining in the third inning. The 13,507 attendees at the Barclays Center became untied as Pembury hung over the ledge and Harden bounced onto the court in celebration.
It wasn’t an entirely smooth night for the nets, as Durant was sent off with 3:23 left in the third quarter after being evaluated for a Fatal 2 foul against Kelly Olinick. The Detroit center and the Brooklyn forward became entangled when Olinick put up a screen, threw Durant his forearm and then pushed Olinik onto the court after the whistle.
The accident was Durant’s second in many matches. He had technically conceded in Brooklyn’s 105-98 win over the Pacers on Friday night to throw the ball into the stands after being fouled.
“I tried running across the screen,” Durant said. “This was the result of my attempt to blow up the screen.”
Brooklyn finished the game having 65.3% of his shots from the field (47-for-72), and 52% of his 3 (13-for-25), as well as rebounding Detroit 41-29 and enjoying a 30-21 advantage in passing. The curling also outnumbered the Pistons in the paint, 42-30.
“We couldn’t get them out of their rhythm,” Joseph said.
Hints:
Pistons: Young Detroit. Detroit is rebuilding. Detroit learns about life in the NBA. All of this means that a great deal of head coach Dwayne Casey’s job is to monitor the emotional state of his team. “They’re somewhere in between their growth process,” Casey said before the game. “So what you have to do is have patience and that’s what we have. We’re in the long haul. We understand where we are. It’s in our process. We’re not going to skip the alphabet just trying to win tonight’s game. That’s where we are. We know what we are and we’ve I’ve been there before so I know there’s no magic wand.”
the following:
Pistons: Host defending champion Milwaukee on Tuesday night.
Nets: The six-game home wraps up by hosting Atlanta on Wednesday night.