THE FACTS: Greg Monroe scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Detroit Pistons dominated in the second half to blow past the Milwaukee Bucks, 103-87, Friday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Monroe scored 12 of his points in a third-quarter blitz that saw the Pistons outscore Milwaukee, 33-11, and turn a 49-41 halftime deficit into an easy victory. Brandon Knight had 10 of his 20 points in that quarter, as the Pistons (14-23) won for the seventh time in nine games.
Brandon Jennings and Beno Udrih each had 15 to lead Milwaukee (18-17), which lost for the first time under new coach Jim Boylan after two victories.
QUOTABLE: "We know he's the leading shot-blocker in the league so I had to do a good job of going at him and getting into his body so he couldn't block my shot. I got in a good rhythm and coach kept feeding me the ball."
-- Monroe, referring to Milwaukee's Larry Sanders, who couldn't stop him.
THE STAT: For as lopsided as the game turned out, most of the statistical categories were fairly even ... except for one: The Pistons made 8 of 22 3-pointers, the Bucks just 1 of 16.
TURNING POINT: Detroit trailed, 49-41, at the half but made a concerted effort to go inside from the opening of the third quarter. Monroe and power forward Jason Maxiell scored the Pistons' first nine points of the period. As the offense heated up, the defense was clamping down, holding Milwaukee to 5-of-21 shooting in the period.
QUOTABLE II: "Greg, he was the guy tonight. ... We're built to where we have a lot of good players. Some nights it's going to be some guy's night and the next night it's going to be someone else's. That's part of the give and take of being on this team. ... It's just kind of rolling who has it going."
-- Pistons coach Lawrence Frank on Monroe getting the ball and scoring so much in the third quarter.
HOT: Monroe went 5 for 7 in the third period and the Pistons made 13 of 19 (68.4 percent) to turn the game around.
NOT: On two different occasions the Bucks missed 10 straight shots. They missed their last nine shots of the first quarter and their first of the second quarter and10 straight in the third quarter during a 15-0 Detroit run.
GOOD MOVE: With Sanders having three fouls at halftime, the Pistons dumped the ball inside on nearly every possession in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Monroe never did draw Sanders' fourth foul, but instead got the Pistons rolling.
BAD MOVE: Udrih had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the first 6 minutes of the second quarter but we pulled shortly thereafter.
ROOKIE WATCH: Detroit forward Andre Drummond had eight points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, and Pistons guard Kyle Singler had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. Milwaukee's John Henson finished with six points and four rebounds.
NOTABLE: The coaching matchup of Boylan and Frank pitted a former Marquette University player (Boylan) against a former Marquette University assistant coach. "Jimmy's career was a whole lot more impressive than my short resume here," Frank said. Boylan played on the 1977 NCAA Championship team. Frank was an assistant to Kevin O'Neill from 1992-'94.A catch-all category that can include milestones, stats that don't fit elsewhere, other aspects of the game that should be included. ... Sanders finished with three blocks and had a streak of games with four or more blocks snapped at five. ... The Bucks play their next four games on the road, three of them on the West Coast. ... Monroe had his 13th double-double and his sixth 20/10 game. ... The Bucks finished with 12 blocks and have blocked 10 or more shots in their last four games. That's the longest such streak in the NBA since the Los Angeles Lakers had six such games in the 1999-2000 season.
UP NEXT: For the Pistons, Saturday vs. @ Utah, Thursday vs. New York (in London), Jan. 20 vs. Boston. For the Bucks, Sunday @ Toronto, Tuesday @ Los Angeles Lakers, Thursday @ Phoenix.