AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ The Detroit Pistons made their possible final home opener at the Palace a good one.
Hustling on defense and running a smooth offense after the first quarter, the Pistons dominated Orlando in a 108-82 victory tonight.
With owner Tom Gores announcing the team is close to a deal to move operations downtown, the team took care of business after a shaky first quarter to even its record to 1-1.
Frank Vogel, in his first year as Orlando's head coach, expected a physical battle with the Pistons.
"When you have guys like Andre Drummond and Aron Baynes, who are big, strong guys who roll to the basket and pound on the glass. ... We have to play with a lot of hustle and a lot of toughness."
Drummond led the team with 12 points and 20 rebounds in three quarters. Tobias Harris finished with 18, Marcus Morris 17, and Ish Smith 16 points and eight assists.
The Pistons got good shots in the first quarter, but mostly misfired.
Subs Baynes (13 points) and Beno Udrih (13) saved the quarter, combining for six points to give the Pistons a 24-22 lead after one.
Baynes and Udrih kept the offense flowing in the second quarter as Detroit built a 34-24 lead on a dunk by Morris off a feed from Udrih.
After an Orlando timeout, the Pistons scored the next 10 points to open up a 44-24 lead on a Smith layup and a triple by Morris, causing Vogel to call another time-out as Detroit's run swelled to 20-2.
Nikola Vucevic finally ended the drought with a lay-in midway through the second quarter.
The Pistons played a nearly flawless second quarter in building a 54-31 halftime lead.
Offensively, they scored 30 points, shot 14 of 29 from the field and racked up eight assists while committing just two turnovers in the half.
Defensively, they held the Magic to nine points on 4 of 22 shooting from the field and out-rebounded the visitors, 20-9.
Drummond dominated the boards with 15, 10 coming in the second quarter.
"We should never get outrebounded the way we did in Toronto," said Drummond. "They were more physical than us."
The Pistons led by as many as 35 in the third quarter with Smith running a smooth offense and Udrih nailing a triple with 1.8 seconds left in the third.
An encouraging sign was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope not allowing Elfrid Payton a layup, administering a hard foul on the Orlando guard to make him earn two points at the free-throw line.
The other encouraging sign was Drummond making two free throws with 3:22 left in the third to make it 76-46.
Fans started yelling for Boban Marjanovic, the Pistons 7-foot-3 backup center, to enter the game with 2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Rookies Michael Gbinije and Henry Ellenson made his NBA debut near the end of the fourth quarter. Ellenson scored two points and grabbed three rebounds.
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