DETROIT — In the past two months, the Pistons have played some of their most solid basketball games of the season. Even in losses, the final margins of the games have been close.
Not this time.
The defending-champion Milwaukee Bucks, still looking to hold on to a high playoff seed, jumped out to a hot start, and the Pistons got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in the first quarter. They never recovered, and after falling into a 22-point first-quarter deficit, they couldn’t climb out.
