AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Draymond Green tried to play mind games with Andre Drummond. That had no effect on the Detroit Pistons' fourth-year center.
Nothing that Golden State did mentally or physically mattered Saturday night against the fired-up Pistons playing in front of a capacity crowd.
Green, the Warriors' power forward and triple-double machine, attempted to get in Drummond's head with trash talk and chippy play. Drummond brushed it aside while he and his teammates surprisingly dusted off the Warriors with ease.
The Pistons led by double digits throughout the second half in a 113-95 victory at The Palace that resulted in Golden State's fourth loss of the season.
Related
"Draymond was talking, wanted to talk and wanted to do some extra curricular stuff after the play," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. "It was good. Andre wasn't having it."
Drummond stayed poised with a 14-point, 21-rebound, three-block performance.
"That's the way he plays. There's no hard feelings," said Drummond, who notched his league-high 34th double-double. "It's like playing your best friend. You can talk if you want, it doesn't mean you mean it. You're just trying to get the best of him. I intimidate people by the way I play. I don't need to talk."
The Pistons' starting backcourt of Reggie Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 20 points each. Jackson, the point guard, had a team-high eight assists and Caldwell-Pope sparked the defense effort with three steals.
Golden State (37-4) shot a season-low 36.2 percent from the field, just the second time the league's top offense shot below 40 percent this season.
"We know we're capable of beating anybody," Van Gundy said. "The difference between the Golden States, the San Antonios and the Clevelands of the world and where we are right now is you've got to do it night after night after night. That's our challenge, to find that on a more consistent basis."
Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, the NBA's leading scorer, had another big night with 38 points, seven rebounds and five assists. But he didn't get much help as Golden State lost for the second time in three games.
Shooting guard Klay Thompson scored 24 points, but no one else had more than 10.
Green thought the Warriors tried to do too much individually.
"I don't think it's a lack of trust, I think the ball's been sticking a little more than usual, not just this game but the last few games," said Green, who was held to five points, 10 below his average. "(Ball movement) is something we have to get back to doing."
Warrriors interim coach Luke Walton thought his team didn't match the Pistons' intensity.
"They were coming after us tonight and we weren't ready to fight back," he said. "In this league, if you're not ready to fight back, you're going to get blown out and that's what happened to us."
Small forward Marcus Morris had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, reserve center Aron Baynes added 12 points and power forward Ersan Ilyasova chipped in 10 for the Pistons (22-18).
Pistons reserve point guard Brandon Jennings suffered an ankle injury during the second quarter and did not return. Van Gundy didn't think the injury was serious but expected Jennings to get an MRI.
The Pistons led by 19 early in the third quarter before the Warriors began to chip away. Curry, who scored 16 points during the quarter, hit two 3-pointers to pull his team within 12. He made another late in the quarter to make it 83-73.
The Pistons then opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 outburst to take total control. Drummond finished it with an alley-oop dunk and the Warriors had no response.
NOTES: The Pistons retired Ben Wallace's No. 3 jersey during a halftime ceremony. Wallace, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, was a starter on their 2004 championship team. ... Golden State SF Harrison Barnes started for the first time since missing 16 games with an ankle injury. Barnes came off the bench the past seven games. "There was no reason to rush him back to get him in the starting lineup. But he looks, especially after the last game, pretty healthy out there," Warriors interim coach Luke Walton said. "We just feel like it's a good time to get him back out there." ... Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, who defeated his club on Tuesday, can win without their best effort. "They're so good, both of those teams, that they've got big margins for error," he said. ... Golden State won the last nine meetings. Its most recent loss to the Pistons was Nov. 7, 2010.
