Jalen Duren collected 20 points and 15 rebounds and Daniss Jenkins added 17 points while starting in place of All-Star Cade Cunningham, lifting the visiting Detroit Pistons to a 112-104 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday.
Duren sank 7 of 11 shots from the floor to power the Pistons to their fourth win in a row and their seventh victory in eight contests.
Duncan Robinson drained four 3-pointers to highlight his 15-point performance for Detroit, which played without both Cunningham (left hip contusion, illness) and Caris LeVert (illness).
Detroit’s Ausar Thompson recorded 12 points and nine rebounds and Tobias Harris added 10 and six, respectively.
The Pistons benefited from a 36-16 edge in fastbreak points to hand the reeling Pelicans their 14th loss in 16 games.
New Orleans’ Saddiq Bey made all 11 of his free-throw attempts to finish with a team-high 20 points.
Trey Murphy III and rookie Micah Peavy each scored 17 points for the Pelicans, who shot a dismal 21.9% from 3-point range (7 of 32).
New Orleans star Zion Williamson scored four points in 15 minutes before exiting the contest due to an illness.
The Pistons were up by 13 points early, but Peavy sank a 3-pointer to trim the gap to 101-96 with 5:41 remaining in the fourth quarter. Detroit then slowly began to pull away, as Jenkins scored five points and Duren added four during their team’s 11-5 run.
The Pistons were nursing a 78-72 lead before scoring eight of the game’s next 10 points, highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Robinson.
Detroit bolted out of the blocks on a 13-0 run, with Jenkins, Robinson and Harris each sinking a 3-pointer.
The Pelicans kept within earshot and closed the gap to 34-30 by the end of the period due in large part to Peavy, who sank a pair of 3-pointers to highlight his eight-point performance in the frame.
