Nets begin trek with rout of the Pistons

Auburn Hills, MI – Deron Williams scored 31 points and the Brooklyn Nets kept the Detroit Pistons winless in March with a 119-82 thumping at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Nets opened their eight-game road trip with a relatively easy victory by hitting 54 percent from the field and holding Detroit to 1-of-18 shooting from behind the arc.

Brook Lopez scored 18 points, Joe Johnson added 13 and Andray Blatche checked in with 15 in the rout.

The Pistons have dropped a season-high nine straight and six in a row at home. Will Bynum scored a team-high 18 points, while Greg Monroe had 17 in defeat.

Williams scored 14 points in the first frame and capped a quarter-ending 9-2 run with a 3-pointer for a 36-23 Nets advantage.

"He's shooting the ball so well and playing with so much confidence," Nets interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo said of Williams. "There's a lot of things he does that people don't appreciate."

Another Williams triple had the margin up to 20 at 59-39 late in the half, and though the Pistons scored the final six points before the break, the hosts came out of the locker room cold and never recovered.

Detroit made one field goal over the first 5 1/2 minutes of the third quarter, and the Nets ripped off a 10-2 flurry to go up, 69-47, on a Williams bucket.

The margin reached as high as 43 in the fourth quarter.

"As a group, we stunk," Pistons head coach Lawrence Frank said. "It's disheartening to watch."

Game Notes

Brooklyn won the first two meetings between these teams by a combined five points ... The Nets snapped a 10-game skid in Auburn Hills with a 93-90 win on Feb. 6 ... MarShon Brooks and Jerry Stackhouse each chipped in 10 points for the Nets, who shot 9-of-21 from 3-point range.