Pistons get brief respite at home vs. Hornets

The Detroit Pistons get one last opportunity to play in front of their home fans this month when they host the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.

The Eastern Conference-leading Pistons will embark on a five-game road trip the remainder of December.

Detroit has taken advantage of its home games this season, posting an 11-2 record.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his players came away from their trip to Dallas on Thursday in a foul mood. The Pistons were assessed three technicals and forward Ausar Thompson was ejected in the first half of a 116-114 overtime loss.

After, Bickerstaff leveled heavy criticism toward official John Goble for the way the game was called.

"This game is not about the referees. This was a highly contested game between two competitive teams with guys who laid it out on the line, but it needs to be addressed what happened out there on the floor (Thursday)," Bickerstaff said. "You had one guy who wanted to make the game about the referees, and that is not what this should have been. This was two teams competing their tails off, playing high-level basketball."

Detroit was down by 18 points in the third quarter but rallied behind its reserve corps. The Pistons missed three shots in the final eight seconds of overtime.

"The strength of this team is the depth. We can go to any given guy on any given night, and they can help us," Bickerstaff said. "We came up a little bit short. But it speaks to the team's character and the depth. Guys being prepared and ready to go."

Their star guard, Cade Cunningham, finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. He heads into Saturday's contest averaging 27.2 points, 9.2 assists and 6.2 rebounds.

Charlotte heads to Detroit with just its second two-game winning streak this season. The Hornets defeated Cleveland 119-111 in overtime on Sunday. Then they took a pit stop at home and beat Atlanta 133-126 on Thursday.

LaMelo Ball, who missed the previous three games due to an ankle injury, posted 28 points and 13 assists against the Hawks.

"Our overall team is always boosted anytime he plays," coach Charles Lee told the Charlotte Observer. "The spirit of the group goes up when you have that mighty fighter. When you've got to go to battle and you see him show up, you're like, ‘Oh, dang. We're going to be all right.' And so I think the group really rallies around that. And he did a great job defensively of taking on matchups and finishing possessions."

Rookie of the Year candidate Kon Knueppel continued his hot streak with 28 points and seven assists. Knueppel is averaging 30 points and 6.3 assists over his last three games.

"For a young player at his age in your first year in the NBA to be able to do that, just shows the type of maturity that he has, the awareness of the shots that we need him to take, the shots we think the team needs to take," Lee said. "And so I've been really impressed with that and just his overall growth."