Tre Jones Leads Short-Handed Spurs to Win vs. Pistons

The San Antonio Spurs (13-26) defeated the Detroit Pistons (11-31) in part of Friday's NBA slate of action.

The San Antonio Spurs (13-26) managed to defeat the Detroit Pistons (11-31), with 121-109 being the final score. With both teams being in the Victor Wembenyama sweepstakes, determining who really "won" this game is truly up to the eye of the beholder. 

Tre Jones played an instrumental role in leading the short-handed Spurs to a win with 25 points. With Devin Vassell sidelined, there is an extra burden placed on the rest of the team to step up in the scoring department. That was intensified by Keldon Johnson only being able to play 13 minutes. 

“I feel like we had to grind that one out a little bit more,” Jones said. “It was hectic there for a little bit, but we had to come together with the next man up mentality to pull off a big for us to start off the new year.”

The Spurs began to pull away from the Pistons later the in the second half and led by as many as 14 points. Detroit had come within eight points with 2:46 left in regulation after Jaden Ivey finished off a drive with a dunk. Malaki Branham answered with a 3-pointer to put the Spurs back up by double-figures, proving to be the ultimate difference-making play in the game.

“When Malaki made the big one down the stretch, that sealed the game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He stepped right up. Short clock, and he knocked it down. I thought that was pretty good on his part.”

There was a sense of letdown from the Pistons based on how they failed to get into a rhythm defensively. The Spurs took advantage and managed to take control for much of the game after halftime relatively. 

“We didn’t dictate the ball at the start of the first half,” Pistons guard Jaden Ivey said. “Feel like it comes early, early in the game, you’ve got to get in a rhythm defensively. Just the first half we had some lapses that made them more comfortable late game. That’s on us to figure out how to put us in better position defensively. That hurt us the whole game.”

Bojan Bogdanovic (21 points), Ivey (20 points), and Killian Hayes (18 points) led the Pistons in the scoring department, with a combined 59. Meanwhile, the Spurs had a balanced attack with Jones setting the tone.

The Spurs return to action on Saturday when they take on the Boston Celtics.

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