Robinson scores 27 points and Cunningham posts a double-double as Detroit’s three-game winning streak ends

The Detroit Pistons fought back from an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter but couldn’t finish the comeback, falling to the Philadelphia 76ers, 112-106, Wednesday night in front of a sellout crowd at Little Caesars Arena.

Duncan Robinson continued his hot start to the season, leading Detroit with 27 points, including seven 3-pointers on 11 attempts, while Cade Cunningham added 26 points, a season-high 11 assists and seven rebounds. Ausar Thompson grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds and scored 11 points for his second double-double of the season, and John Collins added 16 points in the loss.

Detroit opened the game with a 17-11 advantage midway through the first quarter, but Philadelphia closed the period on an 18-10 run to take a 29-21 lead into the second.

“Our pace changed when we started the game,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “I felt like we were playing with great pace and getting good looks out of it, but then we slowed down a little bit. I thought the second half we found our pace again and we were able to find some buckets.”

The 76ers kept rolling in the second quarter and built a 48-31 lead with just under six minutes left before the half, but Detroit answered with a 9-0 run, powered by five points from Robinson and four from Cunningham, to cut the deficit to 40-48. Philadelphia responded with a 16-6 run to take a 56-42 lead into the break.

“We were just playing slow to start,” Thompson said. “We were not playing together. We weren’t moving it too much, and in the second half we started doing that. We saw progress.”

Cunningham opened the third quarter with a pull-up 3-pointer, and Detroit shot 61.1% from the field in the period. Philadelphia matched them at 63.6%, and the 76ers took a 91-75 lead into the fourth quarter.

Philadelphia stretched its lead to 18 early in the fourth before Detroit began its comeback. The Pistons scored nine straight points, including two transition finishes from Thompson and a 3-pointer from Kevin Huerter, to make it 95-86 with 8:24 left.

The 76ers held on until late in the game, when Robinson hit a transition 3-pointer and Cunningham scored four straight points to make it 106-102 with 1:05 remaining. Detroit got within four twice more in the final 22 seconds, but Philadelphia made its free throws to close the game out.

Jaylen Brown led Philadelphia with 30 points. Embiid added 26 points and 15 rebounds and went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. Tyrese Maxey scored 19 points and LeBron James finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

With the loss, Detroit (6-2) saw its three-game winning streak end against a Philadelphia team that improved to 8-1. Thompson said the game was still a valuable look at one of the East’s top early teams.

“Feels great to go against them,” Thompson said. “We’re starting to know how we play. Last time we played them, we were missing some guys, they were missing some guys. Today they had their whole team. Obviously, we were missing two people, but I feel like we learned about them. We learned what we could do next time, make it more crowded and get more rebounds too.”

Bickerstaff said a possible postseason matchup with Philadelphia would be hard-fought.

“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Bickerstaff said. “Obviously getting whole will be important for us, but I love our competition. I love the competition against good teams. You know our guys are going to scrap and battle, and that’s what they did.”

Detroit returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 8 against the Los Angeles Lakers at Little Caesars Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. That game can be seen on The Spot - Detroit 20 and heard on 97.1 FM The Ticket.