Jackson’s 23 points pace Pistons to 96-88 win over Cavaliers

Guard Reggie Jackson scored 23 points, and centre Andre Drummond had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the Pistons’ 96-88 win on Monday that ended their five-game losing streak.

“We knew they would give us everything they had because they didn’t live up to their standards in their last game here, ” he said. “You’ve seen it all year: We’re capable of beating anybody and we’re capable of losing to anybody”.

James matched his season-low with 12 points and didn’t reach double figures until he made a pair of free throws with 6:50 left in the game, narrowly extending his streak to 695 consecutive games scoring in double figures. Kyrie Irving also scored 23 points but had five assists and six rebounds. LeBron scored 12 points on 5-18 shooting.

“Energy. We lacked energy today, starting with myself and all the way down to everybody else”, Cavaliers small forward LeBron James said.

Irving, bitten by bed bugs in his hotel room Saturday night in Oklahoma City, was limited to 9 minutes Sunday against the Thunder.

“I was freaked out”, he said. He splashed three 3-pointers in a 90-second span in the fourth quarter, the last one providing the 20-point lead.

“Uncharacteristic”, James said. “Uncharacteristic turnovers from our team, but mostly me”.

James was also asked about former Cavs big man Anderson Varejao, saying “I can tell this group, they love each other”, upon his arrival to the Warriors over the weekend.

Reggie Jackson soon answered with a floater in the paint, setting the stage for Caldwell-Pope, who dug in hard to help on a driving LeBron James the following possession, ripping the ball away and immediately taking off down the floor in one motion, sidestepping a waiting Kevin Love and finishing with a pretty right-handed finger roll to push the Pistons lead back to 10 and ending Cleveland’s comeback hopes.

It paid off in the second game as the Hornets pulled a big 106-97 victory over the Cavaliers after Jeremy Lin’s 24 points and eight assists led the way for the hosts in Charlotte.

The Cleveland Cavaliers put together one of the best games of their season on Sunday and followed it up with one of the worst the next night.

National Basketball Association insiders were convinced the trade made the Pistons a playoff team. “I emailed Steve and within an hour, half-an-hour, he emailed back and said ‘We’ve got you”‘. The last time they won five straight on the road was the 2001-02 season…. “We’ve been trying to find a way to battle and be resilient, and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys for stepping up with us so short-handed”.

“It’s disappointing because we saw the possibilities with Donatas, but I’d do it over again”, Van Gundy said.

James has only missed one game this season, and Lue plans to sit his superstar if and when the Cavs lock up the conference title. Cleveland finished with 18 turnovers.