"No sugar or syrup could make this one taste good.

The Milwaukee Bucks, feeling fine after rallying to beat the Miami Heat on Wednesday, were a glum bunch after absorbing an 88-80 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Friday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Pistons rookie point guard Brandon Knight played with fervor and finished with a career-best 26 points and seven assists.

And when the Bucks made a late run to trim a 15-point second-half deficit to 80-76 inside the final 3 minutes, Knight scored on a floater and a drive to make sure Detroit ended its seven-game losing skid.

"There's no reason to sugarcoat it," an angry Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "Our effort was awful, a total lack of focus and concentration.

"Just a very poor effort, one of the worst I've seen. Our execution was sloppy. Defensively we had no will; we had no will on the board. We gambled for steals.

"We still had a chance to try to steal it (the game), but even our last several possessions, there wasn't any quality in them."

Knight seemed determined to show Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings there was another talented backcourt player in the building.

The former Kentucky star sank 10 of 23 shots and did not commit a turnover in 39 minutes.

"It wasn't about an individual thing," Knight said. "I know I was playing against a really good point guard and he's playing well, but it's not about that.""