Three quick observations from Wednesday night’s 104-81 win over the Miami Heat
SLAM DUNK – The Pistons ranked 30th in 3-point shooting going into their 15th game of the season. They were going up against a Miami defense ranked No. 3 in 3-point percentage. So of course the Pistons had their breakout game, shooting 16 of 31 from the 3-point arc. They surpassed their previous season high of 12, set in the season-opening win at Atlanta, midway through the third quarter. Anthony Tolliver, mired in a deep slump until hitting two triples in garbage time during Monday’s loss at Milwaukee, hit three in the first half and finished 4 of 6. Reggie Jackson (18 points, seven assists, four rebounds, one turnover) hit 4 of 5 triples, Ersan Ilyasova made 3 of 4 and Marcus Morris went 2 of 3. The Pistons snapped a two-game losing streak and, at 8-7, haven’t been under .500 yet. While the Pistons were scoring 104 points against the league’s No. 2 scoring defense, Andre Drummond dominated the paint at both ends. Drummond finished with 18 points, 20 rebounds and a season-best five blocked shots.
FREE THROW – Stan Van Gundy went back to a nine-man rotation, skipping the shooting guard spot on the second unit and increasing the workload accordingly on Marcus Morris, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson. Morris and Caldwell-Pope came into the game ranked sixth and fourth, respectively, in minutes per game and Van Gundy is leery of pushing them quite that hard. Johnson has averaged 20 minutes a game but you can expect that number to start rising if the nine-man rotation stays. If Johnson’s minutes go up to about 28 a game, that would allow Van Gundy to play both Morris and Caldwell-Pope about 33 apiece. Van Gundy got a lift from his second unit, especially in the first half, when it outscored Miami 20-9.
3-POINTER – Spencer Dinwiddie sat out Friday’s game with a sore left knee, elevating Steve Blake to the backup point guard role – the one he occupied to start the season. Blake missed three weeks of the preseason, suffering a concussion on the second day of training camp and missing all but the preseason finale. He dished out 12 assists in 24 minutes in that game, then came off the bench behind Reggie Jackson in the season’s first nine games. But Blake shot just 28 percent overall and 24 percent from the 3-point line, though he did average four assists in just 15 minutes a game. But Blake couldn’t have given Van Gundy much more than he did, especially during his nine-minute first half run in which he picked up four assists and handed over the same 11-point lead to Jackson he inherited. Blake finished with three points and four assists, but Van Gundy’s biggest takeaway from his play will be that the offense functioned smoothly under his direction.
