FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Friday night’s 96-86 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves
SLAM DUNK – With Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson both limited by first-half foul trouble and the Pistons not able to hit open jump shots or 3-pointers, they needed everything they could get from Aron Baynes and Spencer Dinwiddie off the bench. Baynes, limited to 11 minutes a game because Drummond has been so dominant, had his best game as a Piston with six points and 11 rebounds in a season-high 19 minutes. He also made several nice defensive plays around the basket, including a terrific challenge to stop Minnesota’s supremely athletic Andrew Wiggins on a fourth-quarter drive. Dinwiddie’s numbers don’t speak to how well he ran the offense. He finished with six points and two assists with zero turnovers in more than 20 minutes. With Jackson and Drummond fresh for the second half, they finished what Dinwiddie and Baynes started. Jackson finished with 18 points, five rebounds and five assists after scoring five points with no assists or boards in nine first-half minutes. Drummond recorded his 13th straight double-double to start the season, finishing with 21 points and 11 boards after having four and four in 13 first-half minutes. Minnesota had won its last 10 games with the Pistons.
FREE THROW – Stan Van Gundy abandoned his all-bench unit to start second quarters when the Pistons were outscored by Indiana’s reserves 43-2 in the season’s fourth game. He went back to it in the finale of their six-game Western Conference road trip on Sunday against the Lakers and also used it against Cleveland in Tuesday’s win. He said before Friday’s game it would be a “game to game” thing. When he went to that unit Friday, they went scoreless on their first five possessions to start the second quarter – three turnovers, two missed shots – before Stanley Johnson tripled. The Pistons missed 3-point shots on their next three possessions before Van Gundy brought Kentavious Caldwell-Pope back for Reggie Bullock four minutes into the quarter. Bullock didn’t play in the second half, nor did he against Cleveland. Stanley Johnson gave the bench a big boost with 15 points and he was on the court in the fourth quarter to defend Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins.
3-POINTER – There’s still enough disparity in teams’ schedules that you don’t want to make too much of the standings at this point, but there are some pretty strong early signs that the balance of power is swinging closer to even after years of Western Conference dominance. Heading into Friday’s games, the inter-conference record was favored the East, 32-30. Each conference had two teams sinking to the bottom – the Lakers (2-9) and Pelicans (1-11) in the West, the Nets (2-10) and 76ers (0-12) in the East. While the last spot or two in the East in recent seasons has gone to .500 or below-.500 teams, that doesn’t look like it will get it done this season. The Pistons and Celtics entered Friday’s games tied for the No. 7 spot with 6-5 records and Toronto was just outside the field at 7-6. Three other East teams – New York, Charlotte and Orlando – were 6-6. Milwaukee, which entered the night in the 13th spot, was just two games under .500 at 5-7. In the West, Denver and Memphis, both 6-6, were on either side of the cutoff line for playoff berths, the Nuggets currently No. 8 and the Grizzlies No. 9. The Pistons, after Friday’s win, are now 4-4 against the West and have played seven of their 15 road games for the season vs. the West with 14 games remaining vs. West teams at The Palace.
