AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — With Brook Lopez sitting out Friday night against the Pistons due to a sprained left ankle, Nets coach Jason Kidd said his team would continue its focus on playing inside-out, a plan that worked quite well during the team's three-game winning streak heading into the game.
Instead, the Pistons battered and bruised the visitors in the paint, outscoring and outrebounding the Lopez-less Nets on their way to a 103-99 victory at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
The loss snapped the Nets' three-game winning streak — their first of the season — and saw them fall two games behind the Celtics in the awful Atlantic Division after Boston beat the Knicks.
During their recent run of success, the Nets (8-15) have had lots of success pounding the ball inside, be it to Lopez or one of their other size mismatches around the perimeter. But it was the opposite Friday night, as the Pistons — much as they did in the teams' first meeting in Brooklyn on Nov. 24, another game Lopez missed — obliterated the Nets in the post, thanks in particular to the play of second-year big man Andre Drummond.
The Nets had no answer for the 6-foot-11 behemoth inside, who came free for one wide open dunk after another. The Nets had no one who could even try and get in his way with Lopez watching from the bench.
Drummond finished with 22 points (on 8-for-11 shooting) and 13 rebounds, and even went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line after entering the game shooting just 37.5 percent from the charity stripe this season. The combination of Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith battered the Nets' front line for a total of 54 points and 30 rebounds, and led a Pistons effort that produced a 60-38 edge in points in the paint, 21-8 in second chance points and 43-38 on the glass.
Deron Williams was once again terrific for the Nets, finishing with 22 points and nine assists in 41 minutes. But while the Nets also got some decent production from Andray Blatche (20 points) and Mirza Teletovic (17 points), the Pistons used their size advantage to get more shots from both the field and the foul line, where they enjoyed a massive 31-20 advantage.
After trailing by as many as 21, the Nets managed to the cut the deficit all the way down to 101-99 late in the fourth quarter on a Paul Pierce 3-pointer with 11 seconds left. But Kyle Singler made a pair of free throws with 10.4 seconds remaining to ice the game and send the Nets home with a loss.
Although missing Lopez was a huge blow for the Nets, they at least should have their star center back in the near future. After the same injury cost him seven games last month, Lopez was listed as questionable Friday afternoon before eventually being ruled out, and doesn't expect to be on the sidelines for long.
"It's loads better than it was [Thursday]," Lopez said before the game. "It's not nearly the severity of the last sprain. But [Nets athletic trainer Tim Walsh] made the call that we're going to take the night off and take a few extra days [to rest it]."
Lopez said the expectation is for him to return to the lineup for Monday's game against the 76ers in Brooklyn.
"That's exactly it," he said. "That's the plan."
Lopez was posting up against Blake Griffin in the third quarter of Thursday night's 102-93 victory over the Clippers when he fell awkwardly and stayed down after passing the ball to Joe Johnson for a 3-pointer. Lopez checked out of the game briefly before then coming back in — again briefly — and then exiting for good and being escorted to the locker room by Walsh.
Lopez initially sprained his ankle late in the fourth quarter of the Nets' 100-98 overtime win in Phoenix on Nov. 15 when he landed on Kevin Garnett's foot in the final minute of regulation, though he wound up staying in and finishing the game.
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