DETROIT – Bojan Bogdanovic scored 10 of his 32 points in overtime and the Detroit Pistons beat the San Antonio Spurs 138-131 in double overtime on Friday in a matchup of two of the NBA's worst teams.
“That was two young teams with guys trying to make a mark in this league,” said Pistons rookie Jalen Duren, who had 30 points and 17 rebounds in 42 minutes. “I love games like this, where it is a bunch of young guys out there battling.”
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Duren joined Moses Malone, LeBron James and Paolo Banchero as the only teenagers to have 30 points and 15 rebounds in an NBA/ABA game.
“He made a lot of big plays at the right time tonight,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “He was big on the boards and he was catching the ball in traffic and finishing. He could have had even more if not for the (five) free throws he missed.
"He could barely walk by the end.”
San Antonio, which lost its 11th straight game, led 125-121 after Devonte' Graham hit his sixth 3-pointer of his Spurs debut with 18 seconds left in the first overtime.
However, Bogdanovic hit a jumper and Isaiah Livers stole the inbounds pass. Bogdanovic, who missed a short jumper at the end of regulation, was fouled with 13.2 seconds left. He made both free throws, and the Spurs couldn't get off a shot before the buzzer.
Detroit has the worst record in the Eastern Conference. San Antonio is slightly above Houston in the West and both are on pace to share the best odds to win the lottery and the No. 1 pick in the draft.
“I couldn't ask any more out of those guys,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They gave us a heck of a performance with teammates they had never played with before.”
Livers hit a 3-pointer to give the Pistons a 132-131 lead with 1:54 left in the second overtime, and Isaiah Stewart's follow shot made it a three-point game. Graham missed a 3-pointer, and Bogdanovic clinched the game from the free-throw line.
Graham, acquired at the trade deadline, set a franchise record with 31 points in his team debut.
“They called me 15 minutes before the deadline and told me I had to get on a flight to Detroit,” he said. “I threw together two suitcases, grabbed some hoop shoes and met them here.”
Zach Collins had 29 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out in the first overtime while rookie Malaki Branham had a career-high 27 points.
“They both played great tonight,” Graham said. “(Branham) was really aggressive scoring the ball, and Zach did a great job playing a lot of minutes with five fouls. That shows he's a smart player.”
Both teams were short-handed because of trade-deadline moves. James Wiseman, acquired for Saddiq Bey, wasn't available for Detroit with that four-team trade still pending, while Khem Birch didn't play for San Antonio after being picked up in the Jakob Poetl trade.
TIP INS
Spurs: Doug McDermott missed the fourth quarter with a sore right Achilles tendon.
Pistons: Detroit signed Stanley Umude to a 10-day contract on Friday. Umude was averaging 12.8 points and shooting 36.5% on 3-pointers for the Motor City Cruise, Detroit's G-League affiliate.
A NIGHT OF IMPROV
Graham broke Willie Anderson's record for points in a Spurs debut, but Anderson had been through a full training camp before putting up 30 points in his NBA debut. Graham barely knew his teammates, much less the Spurs system.
“I obviously didn't know many plays, but we went over the basic concepts that every team uses,” he said. “(McDermott) was giving me some defensive schemes and a couple plays during timeouts.”
UP NEXT
Spurs: Visit the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.
Pistons: Visit the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.