FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 93-92 win over the Miami Heat…
SLAM DUNK – It was reasonable to wonder if the Pistons would suffer a hangover from their four-overtime win over Chicago – the Bulls are 0-2 since that game, both to losing teams, including a home loss to Brooklyn – and it looked like the same thing would grip the Pistons as they stumbled out of the starting blocks. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter and fell behind by 18 early in the second, but recovered behind a flurry of 3-point shots and led by two at halftime. But another batch of turnovers late in the third quarter fueled a 9-0 Miami run. Again they came back, taking the lead with 55 seconds to play on a jump shot by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. That ended the scoring as the Pistons survived three Miami misses on its last three possessions, including two wide-open jump shots in the final 10 seconds from Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat got big games those two, Bosh finishing with 20 points and Wade with 19 after they’d combined to shoot 3 of 18 and score 11 points a month ago when the Pistons won by 23 at The Palace. Reggie Jackson scored 18 points for the Pistons and Stanley Johnson scored 14 to lead a 38-point night for the bench.
FREE THROW – Miami came into the game as one of the very best 3-point defensive teams in the league, both in limiting attempts and mitigating the damage. The Heat ranked sixth in the league in number of 3-point attempts allowed at just 19.6 per game. And they ranked fourth in 3-point percentage allowed at .318. But the Pistons clawed back into the game after falling behind by 18 points early in the second quarter led by their bench’s 3-point barrage. Steve Blake and Anthony Tolliver hit two apiece and Stanley Johnson hit three – they were 7 of 7 in getting the streak going – and the Pistons hit 10 of 17 in the first half alone. Two more triples from Blake and one from Tolliver helped bring the Pistons back again in the second half. The Pistons finished 15 of 29 from the 3-point line. When the Pistons beat Miami 104-81 on Nov. 25 at The Palace, they hit 16 of 31 from the 3-point arc to snap a prolonged team shooting slump.
3-POINTER – Tuesday’s game marked the first time the Pistons had played with more than one day between games since Nov. 20 at Minnesota when they were coming off a Nov. 17 win against Cleveland. They’d played 17 games over 29 days after finishing that rugged stretch in style – a four-overtime win at Chicago on Friday – with a 10-7 record. Maybe that’s why they looked like fish out of water to start the game, thrown off their routine after a month of jumping from game to game. The Pistons will play at Atlanta on Wednesday, their eighth back-to-back set of the season and the sixth time they’ll be playing a rested opponent in that situation. The Pistons are 1-4 in their first five such games, beating Utah in the Oct. 28 home opener after winning at Atlanta the previous night.
