DETROIT — Cade Cunningham swung his arm in a circle to celebrate the Saddiq Bey bomb. And as a frustrated group of 76ers walked back to the bench for a desperation timeout while trailing by double digits with less than two minutes to play, the Pistons’ public-address announcer unleashed his textbook “DEEE-TROOOIT!”
The Sixers messed around with the lowly Pistons and then fumbled away the game in the fourth quarter, losing, 102-94, Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena.
The Pistons entered Thursday with just 20 wins, but have recently been putting scares into superior teams. Thursday night, they hung around all game until outscoring the Sixers, 29-15, in the final period.
A Braxton Key three-pointer followed by a Killian Hayes floater got Detroit within 85-84 with less than seven minutes to play, before a Cunningham layup gave the gave the Pistons their first lead of the game. Back-to-back three-pointers by Isaiah Livers and Bey snapped an 87-87 tie, giving Detroit a 93-87 lead about a minute later, igniting what had been a tepid home crowd while their team trailed for the bulk of the night.
Then the avalanche continued. When Olynyk got free for a breakaway layup, their lead had suddenly ballooned to 10 points. Then came the big shot by Bey, the former Villanova star, to put his team up 102-89 with less than two minutes to play.
Sixers star Joel Embiid scored 37 points on 11-of-19 from the field and 14-of-16 from the free-throw line and added 15 rebounds, but had seven turnovers. Harden added 18 points on 4-of-15 shooting, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists and quickly returned to the game after a painful fall. But the Sixers were sloppy with the ball, committing 15 turnovers that the Pistons parlayed into 16 points.
Cunningham, a contender for Rookie of the Year, was an impressive 12-of-20 from the field to finish with 27 points. Bey, the former Villanova star, added 20 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds.
The third consecutive loss is another hit to the Sixers’ playoff positioning. They entered Thursday in third place in the Eastern Conference standings, two games back of the first-place Miami Heat and one game behind the second-place Milwaukee Bucks. They next play a home-road back-to-back against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday and at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.
Flat start, awful finish
Both teams started cold offensively, spending the bulk of the first quarter shooting under 40%. What helped the Sixers build an 8-point lead: They went 7-of-7 from the free-throw line, while the Pistons did not attempt a shot from the stripe. Detroit also went 2-of-10 from the three-point arc in the period.
The Sixers’ shooting struggles dipped to 10-of-26 from the floor in the second quarter, helping the Pistons stay within striking distance when Kelly Olynyk hit two free throws to cut the Sixers’ lead to 36-35 with less than seven to play in the frame. But the Sixers answered with a 9-4 spurt to push their advantage back up to 47-39 on a Tobias Harris deep shot.
That foreshadowed the Sixers’ disastrous finish.
Bench struggles
A shaky Sixers bench unit struggled again Thursday, scoring just 8 points to Detroit’s 39 from its reserves.
Despite Rivers extending his rotation to 10 players, the Sixers bench were outscored 21-0 in the first half on 0-for-5 shooting. The only stats the reserves totaled before the break were one rebound by Shake Milton, one steal apiece by Georges Niang and Danny Green, and one block by DeAndre Jordan.
The Sixers’ reserves finally broke their scoring drought when Milton drained a three late in the third quarter. Milton finished with 3 assists and 2 rebounds in 19 minutes.
After Paul Millsap was the Sixers’ backup center in Tuesday’s loss to Milwaukee, Jordan was back in that role against the Pistons. The Sixers also went small, with Niang at center, for a stretch in the second quarter.
Furkan Korkmaz got his first game action since playing 11 minutes in last Friday’s win over the Clippers. He played five minutes and went 0-for-1 from the floor.
Olynyk (12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) and Hayes (10 points on 5-of-8 shooting) were the Pistons’ primary bench contributors.
Braxton Key minutes
Key, a rookie who spent most of the season with the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats and was on a 10-day contract with the Sixers earlier this season, got playing time while on a 10-day contract with the Pistons.
He initially struggled against his former team, starting 1-of-6 from the floor, including a missed point-blank layup late in the third quarter. But he nailed a corner three-pointer about midway through the final period that cut the Sixers’ lead to 85-82. He also pulled down 4 rebounds to go with his 6 points in 16 minutes.
After his pregame warm-ups, Key chatted on the floor with Blue Coats assistant general manager Jameer Nelson, who made the trip to Detroit.
