Jalen Duren exits early as Pistons dominate Wizards again

Jalen Duren collected 24 points and 11 rebounds and Paul Reed added 17 points off the bench, fueling the Detroit Pistons to a 117-95 victory over the host Washington Wizards on Thursday.

Duren followed up his career-high 36-point performance on 13-of-17 shooting in the Pistons' 130-117 victory over the Wizards on Tuesday with another strong effort from the field. He made 9 of 15 shots for Detroit (50-19) on Thursday before exiting the game with 2:54 remaining in the third quarter for an undisclosed reason.

Thursday's victory came several hours after the Pistons announced that star Cade Cunningham has been diagnosed with a collapsed lung and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Detroit, which reached the 50-win plateau for the first time since 2007-08, held a 66-26 advantage in points in the paint and a 56-35 edge in rebounds.

Duncan Robinson highlighted his 14-point performance with four 3-pointers on Thursday, two days after being limited to just eight on 3-of-9 shooting from the floor.

Caris LeVert and Kevin Huerter each had 14 points, Ausar Thompson had 10 points and nine rebounds and Daniss Jenkins mustered just nine points on 3-of-16 shooting while starting in place of Cunningham.

Tristan Vukcevic scored 21 points off the bench and rookie Will Riley added 15 points for the Wizards (16-53), who have lost 14 in a row since sweeping Indiana in a two-game set on Feb. 19-20.

The Pistons bolted out of the blocks by outscoring the Wizards 35-14 in the first quarter before seizing a 40-15 lead early in the second. Washington cut its deficit to 42-26 before tempers flared as Ron Holland III and Vukcevic were locked in a spirited discussion, prompting officials to intervene.

The Wizards pulled within five points at 50-45 after Riley sank a 3-pointer, but Detroit held firm and seized a 60-52 lead at halftime.

Robinson began the third quarter in the same manner as he started the first, sinking a pair of 3-pointers to stake the Pistons to a 69-55 lead.

The Wizards trimmed their deficit to 88-78 after three quarters before Pistons took control of the game. LeVert drained his third 3-pointer to stake Detroit to a 104-88 lead with 6 1/2 minutes to play in the fourth. The Pistons put it on cruise control from there.

--Field Level Media