FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Sunday night’s 123-103 win over the Portland Trail Blazers
SLAM DUNK -Is it redundant to call Pistons victories “badly needed” wins at this point? Yes. Yes, it is. They got one of those Sunday night, getting a superb performance from Reggie Jackson and contributions up and down the lineup. Jackson vexes Portland off of the pick and roll, scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter when the Pistons came from 18 points down to win by 17 in November. He finished with 30 points and nine assists with only one turnover as the Pistons jumped to an early double-digits lead and never trailed in snapping a two-game losing streak and moving to 32-31 with 19 games remaining. The Pistons led by 17 early in the second quarter when Portland went nuclear, hitting 10 of 11 shots and failing to score on only two possessions in a 14-possession span as they pulled within four points. But the Pistons led by seven at halftime and went on a 9-0 run to open the second half, never leading by less than eight points after that. Andre Drummond finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds in 26 minutes as all five Pistons starters scored in double figures.
FREE THROW – The addition of Tobias Harris gave the Pistons a scorer Stan Van Gundy believes can develop into a player who’ll average 18 to 20 points a game. If and when that happens – assuming Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond also continue their career ascents as scorers – then the Pistons will be better able to cope with sputtering shooting performances from Marcus Morris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. When both are struggling – as they had been for losses at San Antonio and New York before Sunday’s runaway win – it puts enormous pressure on both the Pistons’ defense and their three other starters. Morris and Caldwell-Pope were a combined 12 of 45 in the Spurs and Knicks games and both started slowly again, each shooting 2 of 7 in Sunday’s first half. Morris hit a couple of big shots early in the fourth quarter, including a triple, and finished with 19 points on 5 of 14 shooting, but 2 of 4 from the 3-point line. Caldwell-Pope finished with 16 points on 4 of 12 shooting, 1 of 3 from the arc. One key difference in this game: They each managed to produce seven points at the foul line, going a combined 14 of 17.
3-POINTER – How Stan Van Gundy handles his situation at shooting guard for next season will bear watching when the off-season rolls around. With four shooting guard under contract for next season – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jodie Meeks, Darrun Hilliard and Reggie Bullock – it’s conceivable they’ll look to make a deal using one or more of them to help address the situation at power forward, where Anthony Tolliver is a free agent and nobody else on the roster would be exclusively a power forward. Tobias Harris is the starter there and Van Gundy is perfectly OK keeping him in that position, but the Pistons are going to need a bigger alternative – and, preferably, someone who’s more than just a 10- or 12-minute type. That’s what appealed to them about Donatas Motiejunas before the trade with Houston was rescinded due to concerns over Motiejunas’ surgically repaired back. Bullock’s recent play – he came into Sunday’s game averaging 9.4 points and shooting 56 percent from the 3-point line over his past five games and contributed 11 points against Portland in 26 minutes, hitting all three of his 3-point attempts and grabbing seven rebounds, too – gives Van Gundy flexibility. Either he can count on Bullock for quality minutes at both wing positions or – with a value deal and only one year remaining on it – use him as a trade asset.
