Pacers Down Pistons, NBA Roundup

By ESPN

In a season when most teams are struggling to pull away from the pack in the Eastern Conference, beating a rival on the road is a major accomplishment.

The Indiana Pacers, one of the NBA's worst clubs away from home, have done that twice to the Detroit Pistons.

Paul George had 32 points and the Pacers beat the Pistons 121-116 on Tuesday night.

"We have a lot of firepower in our lineup, both our starters and our backups," George said. "The way we have things now, with Monta (Ellis) in the second group, we've got the best of both worlds in both lineups."

Indiana also won 105-90 at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Dec. 17. The teams play twice more in Indiana.

"It's huge to come in here and win for the second time this season," Pacers guard Jeff Teague said. "Things are so crazy and so tight in the Eastern Conference that winning a game like this on the road is huge.

"Paul was the biggest part of it. He's just a great, great player and we let him go."

Myles Turner and Teague each scored 17 for Indiana, which blew a 15-point first-half lead but pulled away in the fourth quarter to win its third straight game. The Pacers (18-18) are 2 1/2 games ahead of Detroit (16-21) in the East standings.

Tobias Harris led the Pistons with 22 points. Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson each had a double-double.

Detroit lost for the eighth time in 10 games, with two of the defeats coming at home to Indiana. George averaged 29 points in the two games.

"He's one guy that we've never been able to stop in the last couple years," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Other guys have big games against us, but we slow them down at times. We never have an answer for Paul."

The Pacers hit six of seven 3-pointers in the first quarter to score a season-high 36 points and take an eight-point lead. The margin was 15 in the second before the Pistons rallied late to pull to 66-60.

"We were just standing there and watching, hoping someone would miss," Van Gundy said. "We weren't willing to make the effort needed to close out on anyone."

George and Teague each had 14 points in Indiana's highest-scoring half of the season. The Pacers shot 59 percent from the floor, 88 percent on 3-pointers and 93 percent from the foul line.

Detroit also shot well, hitting 57 percent of its shots, but couldn't keep up despite 13 points from Jackson.

"It is like we only play defense when we are down," Jackson said. "We wait until we're back into a corner to apply any pressure, so we're always playing from behind."

Jackson's jumper early in the third cut the lead to 73-72 and prompted a timeout by Indiana coach Nate McMillan. Jackson's alley-oop to Drummond tied the game at 77, and it was 92-all going into the fourth.

"They got hot and started knocking down a lot of shots," McMillan said. "We were able to keep ourselves in the game and finally get some stops."

Tuesday, January 3 Scoreboard

Philadelphia 93, Minnesota 91

Boston 115, Utah 104

Indiana 121, Detroit 116

Dallas 113, Washington 105

San  Antonio 110, Toronto 82

Sacramento 120, Denver 113

Phoenix 99, Miami 90

Los Angeles Lakers 116, Memphis 102

Wednesday, January 4 Schedule (All Times Central)

Oklahoma City at Charlotte, 6 p.m.

Atlanta at Orlando, 6 p.m.

Milwaukee at New York, 6:30 p.m.

Chicago at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

Memphis at Los Angeles Clippers, 9:30 p.m.

Portland at Golden State, 9:30 p.m.

Miami at Sacramento, 9:30 p.m.