AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ One night after a lifeless road performance, the Detroit Pistons repeated the effort in a 105-90 loss Saturday to the Indiana Pacers at the Palace.
Paul George scored an efficient 26 points and Jeff Teague added 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as the Pacers (14-14) sent the Pistons below .500 for the first time since Nov. 29.
The Pacers scored 40 points in the paint and held the Pistons to 38.1 percent shooting.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 20 points and Reggie Jackson added 19 points and 10 assists for the Pistons (14-15).
The Pistons trailed by 21 points _ one night after trailing by as much as 24 points in a 14-point loss at the Washington Wizards.
Jackson was 6-for-18 from the field and the Pistons are now 3-5 since he returned from rehabbing his left knee.
The Pacers had struggled on the road this season, but made themselves at home in moving 4-10 away from Indiana.
A flurry of 3-pointers gave the Pistons an early nine-point lead at 16-9. Caldwell-Pope had two of the triples.
But George's 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left in the first quarter gave the Pacers a 27-25 lead.
The Pistons went without a field goal for more than 9 minutes _ a stretch that spanned the first and second quarters.
It was a struggle for the Pistons' bench without Jon Leuer, who missed the game with back spasms. They only were able to score on transition baskets after Pacers turnovers.
But Detroit only trailed by four with 3:09 left in the first half after a Marcus Morris triple cut the lead to 44-40.
The Pacers continued to get into the paint and finished the half on a 7-0 run to take a 55-44 lead into halftime. George and Teague combined for 14 points each.
