DETROIT _ The NBA's worst 3-point shooting team had one of its best nights _ against the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, no less.
After Saturday's haunting second-half collapse against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Detroit Pistons made sure it didn't happen again, blitzing the Denver Nuggets, 129-103, behind hot shooting in front of a sparse crowd Monday at Little Caesars Arena.
Andre Drummond dominated the paint, particularly the offensive glass in collecting a season-high 27 points with 12 rebounds, six offensive, in three quarters.
He and the rest of the starters watched as the team's five-man bench unit built on its 14-point lead to open the fourth quarter, leading by as many as 29. Detroit's bench outscored Denver's, 60-28, led by 21 points from Stanley Johnson, 18 from Langston Galloway and 14 from Luke Kennard.
Trey Lyles led Denver with 20 points.
Denver entered the night No. 4 in opponent 3-point percentage (34.1), but the Pistons did a nice job driving the ball to collapse the defense, then found the open shooter.
The Pistons (23-29) shot 16-for-37 from 3-point range (43.1 percent) to end the Nuggets' six-game winning streak.
Drummond kept the Nuggets (37-16) at bay, often by himself, cleaning up missed shots for second-chance points in a 14-point, third-quarter performance.
After a putback right hook shot gave the Pistons a 94-78 lead late in the third quarter, he hopped past midway court, waving his arms to pump up the crowd.
Defensively, he did a nice job crowding Denver's Nikola Jokic, staying down on the Serbian's pump fakes and sliding his feet in sync with Jokic, combatting his unorthodox post game. Jokic scored 11 of his 16 points in the first quarter.
After the Pistons' bench was outscored 80-17 by the Clippers, they quickly eclipsed that in the second quarter Monday, using a 14-2 run to take control, led by Galloway and Kennard. The bench scored 25 in the first half.
Then, to start the fourth quarter, Johnson heated up. He bullied Denver's Monte Morris in the post for an and-1, then hit a corner 3. Kennard dropped in one of his own 3s, then Johnson connected from the wing.
It was an entertaining opening quarter, with both teams taking and making open jump shots.
Denver hit 9 of its first 11 shots to take a 25-18 lead. They hit their first four 3-pointers. The backups-turned-starting backcourt of Morris and Malik Beasley scored a combined 16 points in the run on 6-for-7 shooting with four 3s, forcing Pistons head coach Dwane Casey to call timeout.
The Pistons responded with 10 straight of their own, led by better defensive ball pressure, leading to turnovers and contested shots.
The Pistons, who entered last in the NBA in 3-point shooting at 33.3 percent, went 6-for-12 from 3 in the quarter, including a corner swish from Johnson to beat the buzzer and cut the deficit to 36-34 after one.
Morris, who led Flint Beecher to two state titles and was named Michigan's Mr. Basketball in 2013, started 5-for-5 from the field for 11 first-quarter points. He finished with 18 points and three assists on 8-for-13 shooting in his fourth straight start replacing the injured Jamal Murray.
It was a stark contrast from last season, when he was a two-way player making his NBA debut at LCA against the Pistons, playing three minutes and missing one shot.
He signed a three-year contract in the offseason worth $4.7 million.
Morris, who said pregame he expected around 300 friends and family members at the game, was a second-round pick in 2017 out of Iowa State.
The Pistons' starters sat the entire fourth quarter, an important break since the Pistons face the New York Knicks on the road Tuesday. No starter played more than 26 minutes.
