Three quick observations from Wednesday night’s 127-122 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns…
SLAM DUNK – The Pistons haven’t been able to say they caught a team at the right time very often this season. But that was the case Wednesday. They played a Phoenix team not only playing on a back to back – the Suns lost at Brooklyn on Tuesday while the Pistons were off after downing Houston on Monday – but missing its two starting big men, center Tyson Chandler and power forward Markieff Morris. Didn’t look like it would matter midway through the fourth quarter with the Suns ahead by 16 points, using unconventional lineups out of desperation to spread the Pistons out and slice through their interior defense. Down 104-89, though, the Pistons went on an 18-0 run to take a three-point lead. Phoenix scored eight points on its next three trips, though, and the Pistons were down two when Andre Drummond knocked down two clutch free throws with 19 seconds to play. Eric Bledsoe’s leaner at the regulation buzzer rolled off, and the Pistons quickly grabbed a seven-point overtime lead. But Phoenix scored on four straight trips to pull within two points and had two chances to tie in the final minute. Marcus Morris split a pair of foul shots with nine seconds left to make it a three-point game and Brandon Knight missed a triple with three seconds left to allow the Pistons to clinch it with Morris at the line. The Pistons got double-doubles from Reggie Jackson (34 points, 16 assists, three turnovers), Morris (24 points, 14 rebounds) and Drummond (22 points, 12 rebounds).
FREE THROW – It sure looked like the heavy workload had finally caught up with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope until he caught a second wind in the fourth quarter. He had a knifing steal and breakaway, then – while shooting 2 of 8 and passing up open shots – drained a clutch triple with 4:56 to play to pull the Pistons within five. Caldwell-Pope, scoreless through three quarters, finished with 10 points, six boards and three steals and again played heavy minutes, 46. He came into the game second in the league in minutes per game at 37.1 and came off a 44-minute outing on Monday when he was called upon to guard Houston’s James Harden, playing the entire second half. Caldwell-Pope took only two shots in the first half, missing both. On the first possession of the second half, he passed up a wide-open corner 3-point shot – after the dunk or uncontested layup, the most sought shot in the game – in favor of passing out for a longer 3-point try by Ersan Ilyasova. The Pistons needed to use him for heavy minutes again vs. Phoenix, though, because the shorthanded Suns’ lineups demanded heavy use of perimeter defenders.
3-POINTER – The Pistons didn’t hesitate when they went on the board at No. 8 to draft Stanley Johnson. That’s the player their board said to draft at that spot. But Stan Van Gundy admitted there was a spirited debate among the staff when they debated Johnson and Kentucky’s Devin Booker, whose scoring ability was a major attraction. Booker has had trouble cracking Phoenix’s rotation early, sitting out three games and averaging 12 minutes. But with the Suns a little shorthanded and desperate, Booker shot them back into the game after the Suns fell 10 points behind in the first quarter. He scored 15 points in 11 first-half minutes, hitting 2 of 3 triples but also getting to the foul line to go 5 of 5 and showing the stuff to finish in heavy traffic at the rim. He finished with 18 points. Booker, who grew up a big Pistons fan in Grand Rapids but moved to live with his father in Mississippi after his freshman year of high school, is the youngest player in the NBA. Johnson, who scored seven points and was on the floor to close the game for defensive purposes, is third youngest.
