• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Playoff-hopeful Hornets bury Pistons

Apr 2, 2015 - 2:53 AM Charlotte, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Marvin Williams' 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting led the way in the Charlotte Hornets' 102-78 rout of the Detroit Pistons.

Kemba Walker added 17 points and Gerald Henderson tallied 14 in a strong bounce-back effort for Charlotte, which had lost seven of nine coming in and dropped a 116-104 decision at home to Boston -- one of the teams the Hornets are battling with for one of the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference -- on Monday.

"We're still fighting," said Hornets guard Mo Williams, whose team now trails Miami and Brooklyn by two games for the East's seventh and eighth seeds. "Everybody in this locker room has a goal to get to the playoffs. It showed tonight."

The Pistons entered Wednesday's matchup having won five of six, but shot just 35.2 percent and trailed from start to finish.

Jodie Meeks paced Detroit with 15 points and Andre Drummond finished with 13 along with nine rebounds. Reggie Jackson recorded eight assists, but managed just nine points while going 3-of-16 from the floor.

Drummond made just 6-of-15 shots.

The Hornets competed with a sense of urgency in a game pivotal to their playoff hopes, while the Pistons often looked disinterested in their second outing in as many nights.

Charlotte hit four of its first five shots en route to jumping out to a 14-4 lead and rode a hot start from Walker in building a 33-25 advantage after one quarter. The standout point guard dropped in 12 points on a 5-of-7 success rate for the period.

The game then began to get out of hand early in the second quarter, as the Hornets put forth a 14-2 run to extend the margin to 49-29 midway through the frame.

"We weren't ready to play when the game started," Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy said. "It wasn't one guy -- it was everybody. When you're not ready to play, it's going to be a long night."

Detroit, which made just one basket over the first six-plus minutes of the second quarter, began to get its act together near the end of the stanza. The Pistons ended the half on a 10-3 surge, capped by Tayshaun Prince's dunk off a Hornets' turnover, to pull within 56-45 at the break.

Charlotte was ahead by as many as 16 in the third quarter, though an 11-3 Pistons' run that Meeks ended with a successful jumper cut the lead to 67-59 with 3:42 to go in the period.

That was as close as they got, however. Detroit went 6-of-21 from the field and missed all seven of its 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter as the Hornets pulled away.

Charlotte put it out of reach by embarking on a 15-2 spurt, highlighted by treys from Marvin and Mo Williams, to open up a commanding 95-70 lead with under 2 1/2 minutes left.

Game Notes

Charlotte will next visit Indiana, also in the mix for one of the final two playoff seeds in the East, on Friday ... Mo Williams had 13 points and six assists off the bench, while fellow reserve P.J. Hairston netted 12 points for the Hornets ... The Pistons had defeated the Hornets in six of their previous seven trips to Charlotte, including a 106-78 triumph on Feb. 10 ... Pistons rookie guard Spencer Dinwiddie sat out the game after spraining his left ankle in Tuesday's win over Atlanta ... The teams will square off again in Detroit on April 12.