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Gordon's 24 lead Pistons over Bucks, 113-104

Oct 8, 2009 - 3:26 AM AUBURN HILLS, Mich.(AP) -- Rodney Stuckey was expected to be the little guy on the Detroit Pistons' perimeter.

Based on Wednesday night, he might be providing the size.

Instead of playing with 6-foot-7 Richard Hamilton and 6-9 Tayshaun Prince, the 6-5 guard found himself in Detroit's best combination with a smaller duo.

Stuckey, Will Bynum and Ben Gordon combined for 68 points in Detroit's 113-104 victory over Milwaukee, including a fourth-quarter stint that saw Stuckey playing small forward while the 6-3 Gordon and 6-foot Bynum filled the guard spots.

"We've never tried that before, not even in practice, but I thought it was great," said Stuckey, normally Detroit's point guard. "I'm not worried about guarding bigger people - I can handle myself out there."

New Pistons coach John Kuester also was happy with the combination, especially since it allows him to rest Hamilton and Prince.

"Those three guys are going to stretch a defense, and give Tayshaun and Rip a chance to save their legs and have more explosiveness," Kuester said. "I'm sure teams will try to post them up when we play that group, and that's where we will have to get help from our bigs."

Rookie Brandon Jennings led the Bucks (0-2) with 18.

"He needs floor experience. He made some great plays and he made some plays that show he has a lot to learn," Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said. "That's understandable for his second NBA game. The issue he has right now he is keeping people in front of him - Bynum was going right by him."

The game was tied at 55 after a foul-filled first half, but Detroit outscored the Bucks 28-16 in the third and won going away.

"It's still exhibition season, and we're trying things and they are trying things - stuff that you might not see in the regular season," said Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut, who finished with nine points. "We have a bunch of new guys from all over the league and Europe, so it is going to take us some time to mesh."

The replacement referees caused confusion in the first quarter. Ersan Ilyasova was fouled while shooting a jumper and awarded two free throws. During the next timeout, more than 90 seconds later, the officials decided he had been taking a 3-pointer, and gave him another shot.

He made it, but Prince pointed out that the error was only correctable within 24 seconds, so the point was taken away from Milwaukee.

"I told him that they couldn't change it after five minutes or whatever it was, and he said 'yeah, you're right,"' Prince said. "Then I had to remind him to tell the scorer's table to take it back off the board."

The officials called 68 fouls - 26 more than the average regular-season game last year - and ejected Carlos Delfino and Austin Daye for fighting in the final minute. Fellow rookie Jonas Jerebko was ejected in Monday's win over Miami after a scuffle with Jamaal Magloire.

"I have no idea what I got thrown out for - I was getting ready to shoot the technical free throws when they told me was I was gone," Daye said. "I know I didn't throw a punch - it would have been stupid to do that after Jonas got thrown out of the last game."

The Bucks started players from four continents - Europe (Ilyasova), Australia (Bogut), Africa (Luc Mbah a Moute) and North America (Michael Redd and Luke Ridnour) - and had South America's Delfino coming off the bench.