FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Wednesday night's 121-114 win over the Boston Celtics
SLAM DUNK – The Pistons came into the game No. 1 in the NBA in turnovers and were well on their way to improving their standing, coughing it up just three times while rolling up 92 points over the first three quarters. Then the fourth quarter started – the Pistons up eight and 12 minutes away from a most impressive road back-to-back sweep – and all hell broke loose. After Marcus Morris stretched the lead to 10 with a jumper on the first possession, the Pistons had a mini-meltdown. They went nine possessions without scoring, turning the ball over six times and missing three shots. Boston's 11-0 run put the Celtics ahead at 95-94 for the first time since 11-9 early in the first quarter. But when Stan Van Gundy got his starts back on the floor, order was restored. The Pistons went on a countering 9-0 run and wound up with a very satisfying win to cap an extremely productive 24 hours after winning at Charlotte on Tuesday. The Pistons have won four of their last five and have evened their record at 10-10 with Reggie Jackson's return around the corner. Four starters scored 20 or more points and Ish Smith added 19 as the Pistons shot 55 percent and recorded 28 assists.
FREE THROW – Boston is promoting Avery Bradley as one of the top two-way players in the league and the numbers make for a compelling case. The Pistons think they have a player cut from a similar cloth in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who at 23 and in his fourth year has numbers comparable to Bradley's at a similar stage. Caldwell-Pope won their matchup by more than the final box score will reveal, finishing with 25 points, five rebounds and four assists, hitting 10 of 17 shots. Bradley hit three consecutive 3-point shots – guarded by Ish Smith while Caldwell-Pope switched over to the tougher assignment, Isaiah Thomas – in the final two minutes to finish with 14 points on 4 of 12 shooting. Caldwell-Pope came into Wednesday's game averaging 14.3 points, just off last season's 14.5 despite playing nearly four fewer minutes per game. He's also shooting a career-best .376 from the 3-point line after a slow start and continues to be Stan Van Gundy's best and most versatile perimeter defender. Bradley is averaging a career-best 17.9 points and shooting 40 percent from the 3-point line, but the biggest jump in his stats over last season is in rebounding; he's at 7.9 this season, his seventh after turning 26 earlier this week, up from last year's 2.9. Like Caldwell-Pope, Bradley made his way in the NBA as a defensive stopper after being drafted 19th in 2010 after one season at Texas.
3-POINTER – The 12 3-point shots the Pistons made at Charlotte represented a season high and the first time they were in double digits. Last season, the Pistons did it 16 times – or nearly once in every five games. They rank last in attempts and last in makes from the 3-point arc. But over the last two games, they've shown that if they can be even respectable from the arc they're going to give themselves a chance to win a lot of games. They were outscored from the 3-point line by Boston, one of the league's most prolific deep-shooting teams, ranking fifth in attempts and ninth in accuracy. But the Pistons hit 9 of 20 from the arc themselves – Boston finished 15 of 42, 35.7 percent. They got two triples each from Marcus Morris, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jon Leuer and three from Tobias Harris. Harris and Caldwell-Pope hit huge ones in the fourth quarter as the Pistons padded the lead that held up.
