DETROIT _ The Detroit Pistons averted disaster Tuesday when they were able to hold off Jimmy Butler and the Chicago Bulls with a 102-91 victory at the Palace.
After blowing a 17-point first-half lead, the Pistons bench and Tobias Harris (22 points, seven rebounds) retook control with a late 12-0 run that turned a four-point deficit into a 83-75 lead with 7:28 to play.
Darrun Hilliard (nine points) completed the run with a corner triple, which brought Palace fans from their seats.
Aron Baynes had six points and five rebounds in the run, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds.
Andre Drummond finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Reggie Jackson struggled in his second game of the season after missing the first 21 games rehabbing his left knee. He finished with seven points and seven assists on 2-for-9 shooting.
Ish Smith shot horribly in going 2-for-11, but dished out 10 assists.
Butler kept the Bulls in the game with 32 points. Dwyane Wade scored 19 points.
Not only would blowing a large lead have been an embarrassing development for the Pistons (12-11), but the Bulls were completing a dreaded four-games-in-five-nights stretch.
The Bulls (11-10) looked like they had suffered a tough loss the previous night against the Portland Trail Blazers at the United Center.
The Pistons quickly jumped to an early 10-point lead behind the energy of Drummond, whose fast-break dunk gave the Pistons a 14-9 lead. Then Jackson found Drummond for alley-oop dunk at the 6:01 mark of the first quarter to up the Pistons lead to 16-9.
And his tip-in at the 4:05 mark gave the Pistons a 23-13 lead.
But Rajon Rondo, who was suspended for Monday night's game against the Blazers, scored five points in a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to four at 23-19.
The Pistons then surged and took a 32-21 lead into the second quarter behind Drummond's 10 points, three rebounds and two blocked shots.
It looked as if the Pistons would run the Bulls back to Chicago in the second quarter.
A Jackson steal near mid-court turned into an overhead flip toward the Pistons basket that turned into a Drummond dunk, giving the Pistons a 51-34 lead with 3:47 left in the first half.
But the Bulls closed the half on a 10-0 run with Butler scoring eight points during the stretch, trimming the Pistons lead to 51-44 going into halftime.
The Bulls continued the streak in the second half with a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to one. Their momentum continued and they took a 72-71 lead into the fourth quarter.
