FAST BREAKDOWN Three quick observations from Saturday night’s 99-93 loss to the Boston Celtics… SLAM DUNK – The Pistons were neither stout nor porous defensively after Stan Van Gundy focused on patching up some of the leaks they’ve sprung on that end even in going 9-4 over the past three weeks. But they took a big step back offensively from where they’ve been until urgency took over when they found themselves trailing by 16 points at 80-64 early in the fourth quarter. They pulled within two with 32 seconds left on a Reggie Jackson triple, but ex-Piston Jonas Jerebko’s big jump shot with the shot clock about to run out put Boston back up by four points with 10.7 seconds left. But 13 first-half turnovers and poor shooting throughout the game bogged down their offense. They shot 38 percent for the game and made only 6 of 26 3-point shots. Their three starting perimeter players – Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris, who combine to average 48.9 points a game – scored a cumulative 22 points through three quarters before Jackson scored eight and Morris nine in the fourth quarter to finish with 17 and 16. Caldwell-Pope finished with six points, missing all five of his 3-point tries. Andre Drummond gave them a big game with 22 points and 22 rebounds – his fifth 20-20 game of the season; only Dwight Howard, with one, has such a game this year – but it could have been an overwhelming game if he’d made a handful of close-range hook shots. He finished 9 of 21. FREE THROW – It’s almost universal: Ask an opposing coach what they have to stop to beat the Pistons and they’ll say limit their second-chance opportunities. It was the thing that kept the Pistons in Saturday’s game for as long as they did. Andre Drummond grabbed four of their eight first-half offensive rebounds as the Pistons ran up 13 second-chance points to partially offset the 13 possessions they gave away via turnovers. The Pistons are No. 1 in the NBA in offensive rebounds at 13.6 per game and Drummond is the runaway league leader, averaging 5.5 per game, nearly two more than runner-up Dwight Howard. The Pistons finished with a 19-11 edge off the offensive glass against the Celtics and a 25-11 edge in second-chance points, but Boston got some important offensive rebounds down the stretch to milk to clock with the Pistons trying to come back. 3-POINTER -Saturday marked the end of two important stretches of the schedule for the Pistons. It was the last of a 10-game stretch that began on Dec. 7 and as of that day featured nine teams – all but Philadelphia – sporting better records than the Pistons. They finished 5-5 over those 10 games, including tough losses to Memphis (by one point on Matt Barnes’ half-court shot) and the Los Angeles Clippers (in overtime after the Clippers got a game-tying 3-pointer in regulation) to get it started, then won five of six before losing the final two. It was also the end of five consecutive games against teams in the muddled Eastern Conference playoff race along with the Pistons. It began and ended with Boston and included road games at Chicago, Miami and Atlanta. The Pistons finished 3-2 over those five games, winning the first three including the quadruple-overtime game at Chicago.
