FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 88-82 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder
SLAM DUNK – With the Pistons perhaps playing too tight, trying to make too many home run plays, Oklahoma City – playing without stars Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka after ripping off eight straight wins – led by a point four minutes into the third quarter. That’s when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made a hustle steal and dunk to give them the lead and spark a 20-2 run. It looked like the Pistons were free and clear at that point, holding the Thunder to nine third-quarter points and starting the fourth with a 14-point lead and Russell Westbrook on the bench. But that’s when Oklahoma City made its move. The Thunder went big with Steven Adams and Enes Kanter and wound up doing some damage on the offensive boards – including a critical Kanter board that led to a Westbrook triple with the Pistons ahead by five – but the biggest issue was the Pistons’ offense. They failed to score on their first six and seven of their first eight possessions as Oklahoma City cut a 14-point deficit to six when Westbrook returned with about seven minutes to go. The Pistons made just 1 of 12 shots to start the period and Oklahoma City, which shot 15 percent (3 of 20 in the third quarter), found some offense from Kanter and Randy Foye. After Oklahoma City cut the lead to one point on a Foye triple, the Pistons forced four straight empty trips from the Thunder that included two misses from Westbrook – one on an Andre Drummond blocked shot – and a Westbrook turnover when he lost control of an inbounds pass. The Pistons got two free throws from Drummond and a driving dunk from Reggie Jackson for a five-point lead. It was still a 15-point lead with 15 seconds left after two Jackson free throws when Westbrook drilled a 3-pointer with 8.8 seconds to play to cut it to 84-82. Jackson went back to the line with eight seconds left, made two more free throws, and that was that. Huge win, especially given that Chicago kept pace with a narrow win at Indiana. The Pistons, as a result of that game, leapfrogged the Pacers for the No. 7 spot.
FREE THROW – It’s no secret that Pistons opponents focus first, second and third on getting the ball out of Reggie Jackson’s hands and, failing that, to cut off his penetration and take away easy passes to Andre Drummond for dunks. On nights teams effectively meet their goals on that mission, it should open up scoring opportunities for one or more of their three other perimeter players – Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Harris and Morris often found themselves with advantageous matchups against Oklahoma City and Morris, in particular, flourished. He and Harris combined for 27 first-half points with Morris collecting 14 points and six rebounds. They combined to make all nine of their free throws, as well. Morris kept it rolling in the third quarter when the Pistons opened a 15-point lead, scoring eight points and hitting four of five shots. He finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, Harris with 17 points and seven boards. On a night Jackson and Caldwell-Pope struggled – they shot 7 of 31 combined – the production from their forwards helped save the Pistons a painful loss.
3-POINTER – Oklahoma City came into Tuesday’s game with a 4-3 record in games Kevin Durant missed this season and there’s a clear pattern of Russell Westbrook becoming more ball dominant and central to the offense when Durant sits. In the four wins, Westbrook averaged 33.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 11.0 assists. In the three losses, he still averaged 26.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 9.0 assists. Long term, there’s not much question the Thunder need both Durant and Westbrook at their best to challenge Golden State and San Antonio in the West, but in any other year we’d be talking about the Thunder as a primary title contender. They’re No. 2 in offense, trailing only Golden State, and just outside the top 10 in defense, 11th. And as Stan Van Gundy noted, an overlooked factor is the play of their bench, anchored by the scoring of Enes Kanter and bolstered by the addition of Randy Foye from Denver at the trade deadline. The Pistons made Westbrook a volume scorer in Tuesday’s win as he finished with 24 points on 8 of 28 shooting with being held significantly under his numbers in assists (six) and rebounds (four).
