Jennings leads Bucks to 103-82 win over Pistons
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Brandon Jennings had 21 points, reserve Mike Dunleavy added a season-high 20 on 8-of-10 shooting and the Milwaukee Bucks rolled to a 103-82 victory over the skidding Detroit Pistons on Monday night.
Drew Gooden shot 7 of 9 and scored 16 points for Milwaukee, including 10 straight early in the third quarter during a decisive 12-2 run to open the second half. Detroit, which has lost five straight and nine of 10, never led in falling to 4-18.
Rodney Stuckey led the Pistons with 19 points, and Greg Monroe added 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Milwaukee has won four of six after losing three straight.
Jennings scored nine points in the first 7{ minutes, helping the Bucks to a 30-16 lead after the first quarter. He added 12 in the third period.
Milwaukee, led by Gooden, opened the third on a 12-2 run to turn a 47-41 halftime lead into a 59-43 advantage.
Detroit got within 10 points in the third, but the Bucks sealed it by making nine of 10 shots spanning the third and fourth quarters, with the only miss being a three-quarters-court try by Jennings at the end of the third, to extend the lead to 75-60.
Milwaukee led by as many as 23 points in the fourth. The Bucks got off to a strong start, shooting 68.8 percent in the first quarter (11 of 16). They led by as many as 18 in the second, but the Pistons rallied, closing the half on a 9-1 run to pull to within six at halftime. Stuckey had 11 in the period for Detroit, which outscored Milwaukee 25-17.
One second-quarter possession, however, pretty much summed up the Pistons' struggles. It started positively, with Stuckey's seal, but Damien Wilkins missed an easy breakaway layup. Stuckey then missed two point-blank follows, but Detroit got another chance, before Monroe picked up a charge as he ran over Ersan Ilyasova on his way to the basket.
Jennings came in averaging 20 points per game and has scored 20 or more in eight of the Bucks' last nine games. The only time he didn't during that stretch was Milwaukee's 100-89 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. He had 12 points and seven assists in that game.
Milwaukee shot 10 of 17 on 3-pointers and 51.4 percent overall for the game. Detroit was 1 for 9 on 3s, connecting for the only time with less than a minute left, and shot just 38.6 percent for the game.
Tayshaun Prince had 14 points for Detroit, which dropped to 1-10 on the road. Milwaukee is 6-2 at home.
Detroit, which entered with the second-worst record in the NBA behind Charlotte, was without Ben Gordon (sore left shoulder), Charlie Villanueva (sore right ankle) and Will Bynum (strained right foot). All three are day-to-day.
In their first meeting on Jan. 12, a 102-93 Bucks win at Detroit, Monroe had a season-high 32 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Notes: Milwaukee's Stephen Jackson was on the active roster but did not play after serving a one-game suspension for verbal abuse of an official and failure to leave the court after the Bucks' 107-100 loss at Chicago on Friday. Jackson had 25 points in Milwaukee's 102-93 win at Detroit on Jan. 12. It was the first of two back-to-back-to-back stretches for Detroit this season. The Pistons play the New York Knicks on Tuesday and New Jersey Nets on Wednesday. . Milwaukee opened the season on the road for 12 of its first 18 games.