Malik Beasley scores 23 and Pistons win 5th straight, 113-98 over Nets

Brooklyn, NY-NEW YORK (AP) — The Detroit Pistons defeated the Brooklyn Nets 113-98 on Wednesday night to win their fifth consecutive game. Malik Beasley scored 23 points, while Cade Cunningham finished with 13 points, five assists, and five rebounds.

With the help of Marcus Sasser (15 points) and Simone Fontecchio (17 points), Detroit’s bench outscored Brooklyn 50–20. Detroit is 19-18 and has won eight of its previous nine games to go above.500.

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Tyrese Martin finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Noah Clowney finished with a game-high 29 points. The Nets lost for the third time in a row and for the eighth time at Barclays Center.

Takeaways

Detroit: Despite having poor nights in both categories, Cunningham leads Detroit in both scoring (24.4 points per game) and assists per game (9.5).

His teammates took up the slack, particularly Tim Hardaway Jr. (10 points), Fontecchio, and Sasser, who helped the Pistons outscore the Nets 38–13 on the fast break and shoot 52.3% from the floor.

Brooklyn: Cam Johnson, Cam Thomas, and D Angelo Russell, the Nets’ top three scorers, as well as Day Ron Sharpe and Ben Simmons, their second and third-leading rebounders, were among the six rotation players who were out.

Consequently, Brooklyn was outscored 54-36 in the paint and only made 38.4% of its field goals.

Key moment

Midway in the third quarter, trailing 13 points, Brooklyn went on a 7-0 run to cut Detroit’s lead to 70-64 with 5:37 remaining. In response, the Pistons went on a 6-0 run that grew to a 21-4 victory.

With eight points during the run, including two 3-pointers, Fontecchio assisted Detroit in establishing a 91-68 advantage.

Key stat

After 20-17 in 2017–18, Detroit is above.500 through 37 games for the first time.

Up next

Golden State will visit Detroit on Thursday night.

Brooklyn: On Friday night, in Denver.