FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Friday night’s 108-97 win over the Los Angeles Clippers
SLAM DUNK – It likely will turn out to be the toughest five-game stretch of the Pistons season – and it started as well as Stan Van Gundy could have hoped. The Clippers – who beat the Pistons 114-82 and led by 43 at Los Angeles on Nov. 7 – entered the game with an NBA-best 14-2 record. Their next four games are on the road against teams currently in playoff position – Oklahoma City, Charlotte, Boston and Atlanta. So, yeah, this was a huge win from every conceivable standpoint. The Pistons, who snapped an 11-game losing streak dating to November 2010 against the Clippers, led 73-56 midway through the third quarter when the Clippers kicked their offense into another gear. They scored 24 points on their next 10 possessions, scoring on each, to pull within two after three quarters. The Pistons fell behind by two points early in the fourth quarter, then went on a 15-2 run to lead by 11 with five minutes left. Their scoring balance told a huge part of the total team effort – their starters scored 17, 16, 16, 16 and 15 points- but the star of stars was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Noe only for his 16 points, hitting 4 of 6 triples, but also for his career-best 10 assists. And, though J.J. Redick scored 24 points, Caldwell-Pope did as well as anyone could have. Redick scored 18 in the third quarter, 10 in the final 1:27, five on free throws. It took the Pistons less than 10 minutes to top the 32 points they scored in the entire first half when the teams played at Los Angeles on Nov. 7. They led 45-27 early in the second quarter but there were warning signs: three fouls apiece limited Marcus Morris and Andre Drummond to a combined 12 first-half minutes. The Clippers pulled within seven and trailed by nine at halftime. The Clippers outscored the Pistons 20-5 at the foul line, but the Pistons finished with a 42-32 rebounding edge.
FREE THROW – The back end of Stan Van Gundy’s rotation took some sharp turns over the course of a few days. At the start of the week, Reggie Bullock had supplanted Stanley Johnson as a staple of the second unit along with Aron Baynes, Beno Udrih and Jon Leuer. Then Bulllock was injured in the first half of Wednesday’s win over Miami – a torn left knee meniscus, with a course of treatment and timetable to be determined, delayed in part by the Thanksgiving holiday and complications in soliciting a second option from a doctor of his agent’s choosing – and Johnson was suspended one game for what Van Gundy called “a violation of team rules.” It was the team’s deepest position to open the season, but Johnson was a clear No. 1 on the depth chart when training camp and the regular season began and Bullock, the team’s best perimeter shooter, was considered the likeliest to join the mix on nights Van Gundy expanded the rotation to 10. The Pistons needed both Hilliard and Gbinije when Marcus Morris was limited to four first-half minutes due to foul trouble. Hilliard scored nine points and gave the Pistons some early fourth-quarter scoring when they were struggling. Gbinije played five first-half minutes, grabbing one rebound and defending well.
3-POINTER – It’s pretty clear that Reggie Jackson will miss 25 percent of the schedule. Saturday’s game was the season’s 17th. Between now and the end of next week’s road trip on Friday in Atlanta, the Pistons will have played four additional games to take them to 21. Given that there’s only time for one practice in the interim – Monday – it’s almost certain Jackson wouldn’t return until after the trip. If he’s back in time for the Pistons return to The Palace against Orland on Dec. 4, he’d have missed 21 games – just over one quarter of the way into the 82-game schedule. Stan Van Gundy expects to use him in his customary role – as the starter, likely playing as much or close to it as he did last season when he averaged 31 minutes a game, unless he’s given contradictory instructions from the medical side. Jackson has played three-on-three basketball with players out of or on the fringe of the rotation following the morning walk through before all three home games this week. He participated on a limited basis in the only practice during that time, on Tuesday. Van Gundy hopes he can start full-court, five-on-five scrimmaging on Monday. If so, then comes a decision on whether that would be enough to use him at all during next week’s road trip. Van Gundy indicated this week that Jackson would likely need to gradually build to full practice participation.
