On paper, the Milwaukee Bucks entered the season looking like a team that would be entertaining to watch on a nightly basis but also might struggle to win games as a young team going through an NBA schedule for the first time.
That sentiment has rung true early on in 2014-15, as the Bucks have been competitive in all six of their games but fell to 2-4 with a 98-95 loss to the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday night.
Milwaukee had a chance in the final seconds, but Detroit grabbed a key offensive rebound for what turned out to be the decisive bucket.
1 big moment: After Brandon Knight cut Detroit's lead to 95-93 with a put-back layup with 36.7 seconds left, the Bucks forced Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to airball a jumper.
But the rebound fell right to Pistons forward Josh Smith, who gathered the ball and scored a crucial basket. Instead of having a chance to tie or take the lead with the shot-clock off, the Bucks found themselves down 97-93 with 15.1 seconds to play and wouldn't get any closer to the Pistons.
2 top performers: Caldwell-Pope hit 7 of 11 shots, including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc to lead Detroit with 19 points. Detroit's first-round pick in 2013 out of Georgia, Caldwell-Pope entered hitting just 26.1 percent of his 3-point attempts through four games this season. His biggest triple of the night came with 2:27 left to put Detroit up 93-87.
It probably won't hold up for long, but Bucks rookie Jabari Parker scored a career-high 18 points to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Parker was the only reason the Bucks survived the first quarter, as he scored 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting to keep Milwaukee within 27-21.
3 key stats: The Pistons led the NBA with 51.9 points in the paint per game last season, but the Bucks were able to hold Detroit to just 44 points in the paint Friday. Detroit's frontcourt tandem of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond averaged a combined 34.3 points and 25.3 rebounds per game against the Bucks last season but combined for 21 and 17 on Friday night.
While the Bucks were able to limit the Pistons in the paint, Detroit shot 11 of 23 from beyond the arc. The Pistons entered Friday having hit just 28.7 percent of their 3-point attempts this season after finishing 29th in the NBA in 2013-14 with a 32.1 3-point percentage.
Trailing by nine points in the fourth quarter, Milwaukee's 19-year-olds (Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo) scored all 10 points in a 10-3 run to pull the Bucks to within 93-91 with 1:28 remaining.
Said: "This game can be tricky at times, but it also can be cruel. We played great defense to force an airball, and (Smith) comes up with the offensive rebound and put-back. But the guys fought to give ourselves a chance to win on the road. For a young team, we just have to look at this and get better." -- Bucks coach Jason Kidd
Seen: Kidd made a change to his starting lineup Friday, replacing Jared Dudley with Kendall Marshall. Marshall had played just 11 total minutes prior to starting against the Pistons, including not appearing in three games.
Dudley ended up scoring nine points in 20 minutes, while Marshall had three points with four assists in 21 minutes. After playing at least 21 minutes in Milwaukee's five games this season, Khris Middleton did not play by coaches' decision.
Next: Milwaukee completes its run of four games in five nights with a home game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night. Led by the powerful duo of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, the Grizzlies moved to 6-0 by squeaking out a 91-89 victory over the beat up Thunder in Oklahoma City on Friday.
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