Jackson, Drummond lead Pistons over last-place Mavs 95-85
Detroit Pistons guard Reggie Jackson (1) reacts to a call as Dallas Mavericks guard Jonathan Gibson (3) looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. AP
DALLAS, Texas—Reggie Jackson took another step forward in his return from a knee injury.
Jackson scored 20 points – a season high in his sixth game – and Andre Drummond led a dominant rebounding effort with 17 as the Detroit Pistons beat the Dallas Mavericks 95-85 on Wednesday night.
Detroit’s floor leader had nine points and three of his six assists in the fourth quarter, when the Pistons finished a run that started late in the third to overcome a 12-point Dallas lead. Jackson missed the first 21 games this season recovering from left knee tendinitis.
“That’s the player he can be,” said teammate Jon Leuer, who scored a season-high 19 points. “That’s the player we need him to be because he is a great floor general and a good leader for us.”
Leuer was a plus-25 off the bench as the Pistons beat the team with the worst record in the Western Conference three nights after losing to Philadelphia, the last-place team in the East.
Drummond grabbed 10 rebounds in the first 7 1/2 minutes and the Pistons had a 29-9 edge on the boards at halftime and 50-30 for the game. The 6-foot-11 center had more rebounds than Dallas by himself until the middle of the third quarter, when the Mavericks finally went ahead 15-14.
Harrison Barnes led the Mavericks with 19 points.
The Pistons went on a 27-5 run covering about 10 minutes in the third and fourth quarters, turning a 64-52 deficit into their first double-digit lead at 79-69 after an alley-oop layup by Aron Baynes with about 5 minutes remaining.
Dallas’ Wesley Matthews had a season-low four points on 2-of-10 shooting, ending a three-game stretch with at least 25 points. Deron Williams scored 16 but was just 3 of 13 as one of the NBA’s worst-shooting teams finished at 41 percent, just below its average.
“This one was frustrating tonight because we had control of the game for most of it,” Matthews said. “So we’ll learn from it and look at what went wrong.”
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer when the Mavericks were within four points with about 3 minutes remaining.
