Much of it will depend on the Pistons’ ability to keep Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose not only healthy but fresh, but they saw in Saturday’s convincing win over Miami – best game of their season, hands down – their blueprint to milk the most out of this season of transition.
Rose returned after missing two games with a balky knee to score 23 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Griffin put up 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and assisted on eight baskets.
And Jerami Grant continued validating his status as an ascendant NBA star, leading the Pistons in scoring for an 11th straight game and having a hand – both hands, more accurately – in just about everything. Grant had season highs in assists (six) and blocked shots (four) and also contributed nine rebounds and two steals without committing a turnover in 35 minutes.
“I definitely think we’ve got a lot of potential as a team,” said Grant, who came into the game one behind Portland’s C.J. McCollum for consecutive games of 20 or more points and added to it with his 11th straight “We’re still a new team. Still getting to know each other. We have flashes here and there, but we want to keep growing off of that.”
The three were all pulling their oars in rhythm during a marvelous third quarter that saw the Pistons outscore Miami 38-19 to seize control. They opened the quarter with an 11-2 run and put together a 16-2 sequence late. The Pistons knew they’d get their share of open 3-pointers against Miami, but made just 4 of 20 in the first half and trailed by four at the break.
They didn’t miss many in the third quarter, hitting 8 of 12 from the arc, and scored 68 points in the second half.
“We’re trying to figure it out,” Rose said after hitting 8 of 12 shots and making Miami pay for backing off of him at the 3-point arc, making 3 of 5 to go with four assists against a single turnover. “Defensively, we’re just playing with urgency, but we’ve got to get into guys and run. I think we’re a dangerous team when we run.”
The Pistons wound up shooting 50 percent from the field and nearly 40 percent (39) from three on a healthy 46 attempts while posting a season-best 34 assists against just eight turnovers. They also outrebounded Miami 39-31. If you want to quibble, they fouled too much and allowed Miami to stick around by hitting 24 of 27 free throws.
“I still think there’s a lot of areas where we can improve on in timing and togetherness,” Dwane Casey said. “The nuances of our offense, the second option, the third option. I thought we did a better job with that tonight. We attacked the zone. All those little things we’ve got to do, it takes time.”
Casey continues to tinker at the fringes of his rotation to try for the best fit around Grant, Griffin and Rose. Even though Svi Mykhailiuk was coming off a season-high 18 points, he didn’t play until the last two minutes. Sekou Doumbouya didn’t play against Milwaukee the last time out, but got all of the minutes behind Griffin at power forward where Casey had taken to using Grant at that spot when Griffin sat.
It’s going to come down to how the units operate as much as individual performances within them and there wasn’t much not to like about the way both units played as the Pistons improved to 3-9.
“I’ve got to look at the film, but I thought (the bench) defensively they set the tone, also,” Casey said. “Not only offensively, but I thought they came in and really kept it going defensively. I thought Sekou came in and did an excellent job defensively. Isaiah (Stewart) is a Tasmanian devil. He was all over the place. That kind of energizes you as a unit.”
Stewart got a lot done in his 19 minutes, including fouling out. He recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, seven of them offensive, and the Pistons were plus-16 in his time.
Griffin, Grant and Rose combined for 62 points and any time the Pistons get that kind of production from their three most important players they’re going to be in position to win. But the contributions were up and down the lineup. Delon Wright had 10 assists. Josh Jackson had four steals. Wayne Ellington hit 3 of 5 from the 3-point arc.
“We were moving the ball, getting a lot of open looks and we played great defense,” Grant said. “We had a lot of blocked shots, a lot of tips on the defensive end. I definitely think it was the most complete game we’ve played so far this season.”
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