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Banged-up Nets play host to Pistons

Nov 24, 2013 - 3:55 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The struggling and banged-up Brooklyn Nets are counting on a days' rest to get back into the win column and will host the Detroit Pistons Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center.

The Nets have lost four in a row and seven of eight games, and fell to 3-9 on the season with Friday's 111-81 loss at Minnesota. Playing without Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Jason Terry, the Nets struggled to keep pace and made 39.7 percent of their shots. They hit 5-of-16 3-pointers and were led by Andray Blatche's 16 points off the bench.

Joe Johnson scored 15 points and Tyshawn Taylor netted 13 as a reserve. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett scored just six and eight points, respectively, for Brooklyn, which committed 20 turnovers, leading to 22 Minnesota points.

"The big thing for this group is we have to (improve) together," said Nets coach Jason Kidd. "But the actions have to kick in at some point. We're not doing that on either end."

Lopez (ankle) has missed four straight games and is averaging 20.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this season. Lopez, Williams and Terry are listed as out on the Nets' official game notes.

Garnett is one appearance away from matching Gary Payton (1,335) for ninth on the all-time games played list.

Detroit has lost two in a row and seven of its last nine games, including Friday's 96-89 setback to the Atlanta Hawks in the finale of a home-and-home series from The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Two days after sustaining a 93-85 setback in Atlanta, the Pistons fell to 4-8 this season and were led by Kyle Singler's career-high 22 points in his first start of the season. Rodney Stuckey scored 17 points and Andre Drummond added 15 and 16 rebounds for the Pistons, who got 11 points and 11 boards from Greg Monroe and made only 3-of-13 3-pointers.

It was Drummond's seventh double-double in a row. He has nine this season. Monroe had eight straight double-doubles last February and Grant Hill turned the trick in 10 consecutive games back in 1996.

Atlanta used a 20-5 run to grab a 24-16 lead and later trailed, 87-86 in the fourth quarter. The Hawks ended the game on a 10-2 run and took advantage of some costly miscues by Detroit.

"We had some turnovers late in the game that made a difference, but I liked our energy, I liked our effort," said Detroit head coach Maurice Cheeks.

Former Hawk Josh Smith came off the bench and had no points, but ended with seven rebounds, three blocks, one assist and one steal. Brandon Jennings contributed eight points to go along with 14 assists.

Drummond, meanwhile, is posting averages of 14.1 points and 14.3 rebounds in his last seven games and leads the NBA in field-goal percentage (66.4). Stuckey leads the East in bench scoring with 14.8 points per game.

After visiting Brooklyn, the Pistons will return to The Palace for four straight contests versus Milwaukee, Chicago, the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia.

Detroit lost all four meetings with Brooklyn last season and has dropped six of seven and eight of the last 10 as the visitor in this series. Monroe averaged 17.3 points and 9.3 rebounds against the Nets in 2012-13, while Williams posted averages of 17.0 points and 6.5 assists.