OKC 103, Detroit 87: Durant spoils Jackson's return
Detroit gets crushed on the boards, 58-38; Marcus Morris led Pistons with 17 points
OKLAHOMA CITY – Reggie Jackson didn't take the booing personally.
Thunder fans let Jackson hear it every time he touched the ball Friday in his first game against the team that drafted him in 2011.
And superstar Kevin Durant rewarded the fans with 34 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in the 103-87 victory at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Jackson struggled with foul trouble and inconsistency in finishing with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists in his return to Oklahoma City (11-6). He was 4-for-16 from the field.
"I thought I played my game, I just didn't get a shot to go in," Jackson said. "I don't think none of us could. It really felt like there was some voodoo on the ball or something. We missed a lot of shots hitting the back rim, coming out. But I felt good. Didn't feel like I was trying to press it, didn't feel like I was being tentative.
"I just felt like I've been playing all season."
He dismissed the notion that he was bothered by the booing.
He took it as a compliment.
"I got booed when I started here last year," Jackson said. "I knew what time it was when I got in; I'm not really tripping. It doesn't bother me. I kind of love to be hated. It's flattering. It's love and spite at the same time.
"They wouldn't boo me if I didn't do some special things and build some memories here. They booed me so that means we did some special things here – although we didn't get a championship. They remember me."
Andre Drummond scored 15 points, but only grabbed seven rebounds as the Pistons (8-8) were crushed on the boards by 20, 58-38. Marcus Morris scored 17 points.
Drummond, Pistons dominated on glass by Thunder in loss
The 22 second-chance points offset a subpar night from the other Thunder superstar, Russell Westbrook. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope held Westbrook to 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting. Westbrook also committed 11 turnovers.
The Pistons shot 34.4% and forced many bad shots as they could only manage 32 points in the second half. Caldwell-Pope was a perpetrator with several wild three-point attempts from well behind the arc.
"Terrible, just terrible," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said in cutting off a reporter asking about shot selection. "We fell back into everybody wanted to go one-on-one."
Van Gundy was forced to call time-out at the 9:44 mark of the first quarter when the Thunder jumped to an 8-0 lead.
Jackson quickly found Drummond for an alley-oop lay-in to get the Pistons on the board, but the Thunder pushed the lead to nine at 13-4 with two Durant free throws.
But the Pistons surged – despite Jackson's foul trouble.
Jackson picked up his second foul at the 6:39 mark of the first quarter. His third foul followed quickly when he checked back in the second quarter.
But Steve Blake had Jackson's back in the first half.
He turned a steal into a fast-break lay-up for Marcus Morris to tie the game at 21.
Blake nailed a top-of-the-circle triple to push the lead to 26-21.
And he found Anthony Tolliver for a corner triple to give the Pistons a 50-38 lead at the 4:24 mark of the second quarter. The Pistons took two 13-point leads, the last coming on Ersan Ilyasova free throws with 2:32 remaining in the first half.
Blake had five points, seven assists, three steals, three rebounds and was plus-12 in 17:45 minutes as the Pistons took a 55-48 halftime lead.
Contact Vince Ellis: vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.
