LOS ANGELES – The Pistons exhibit a great punch. It’s the counterpunch that needs a little work.
They scored 25 points and led by 11 less than seven minutes into Saturday’s first quarter. Against an opponent down its starting backcourt – both Chris Paul and J.J. Redick missed the game for the Clippers with injury – it looked like the Pistons might have an emphatic antidote for the two-game losing streak they carried into Staples Center after opening their six-game Western Conference road trip with stirring wins at Phoenix and Portland.
But Doc Rivers made a fairly routine change to his defense at that point, switching picks that involved any players except center DeAndre Jordan’s man.
Stan Van Gundy concentrated practices Thursday and Friday on creating better ball movement, an area of concern even as the Pistons started the season 5-3. It worked beautifully in the early going, Reggie Jackson racking up four early assists. His 3-pointer to put the Pistons ahead 10-3 early came off a series of three quick passes – Ersan Ilyasova to Marcus Morris to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – and the Pistons made 10 of 12 shots, including 4 of 5 triples, in that opening spurt.
“Early in the game (ball movement) was good and the switching sort of took us out of it,” Van Gundy said. “They were able to run pick and rolls, put two guys on Reggie, not take the roll man and we never threw the ball to our (center). They were able to stay spread out. We didn’t do a very good job.”
Jordan was the wild card, sometimes ganging up on Jackson and sometimes playing it straight to try to take away Andre Drummond’s rolls to the basket. The confusion seemed to paralyze the Pistons offensively. They went from scoring 60 points in the first half to 36 in the second and went more than 12 minutes without a field goal. The Pistons made only eight second-half baskets, shooting 28.6 percent.
“We were moving the ball,” Morris said. “They couldn’t really stay in front of us. And then the second half, fourth quarter, just got real stagnant.”
If their loss Wednesday at Sacramento was the most disappointing of the season, coming to a 1-7 team though one that played without star DeMarcus Cousins for four-plus losses, this one counts as the most bitter. A win would have ensured at least a 3-3 split of the road and guaranteed the Pistons a winning record when they return home to host Cleveland on Tuesday.
“We’ve dropped three in a row, man,” a plainly downcast Jackson said. “Starting to get normal. We’ve got to just find a way to get a win.”
It almost surely would have come at Staples Center if not for the dominance of Blake Griffin and, even more critically, the re-emergence of Jamal Crawford, who scored 37 to Griffin’s 31. The Pistons knew the Clippers would ask Crawford to carry a big load with Paul and Reddick out, but Crawford came into the game struggling so far this season.
“Personally, I think (Crawford) has been one of the best scorers in the league since he’s been in the league,” Morris said. “With Chris not playing, he’s definitely going to step up. He can play.”
“He played great,” Van Gundy said. “I should’ve been able to come up with something that would’ve made it a little tougher. I think we’ve seen it for years in this league. You know when those guys are out, it was going to be Crawford and Blake Griffin. That wasn’t real hard to figure out.”
No, but even simple solutions can be undermined by great natural scorers and Crawford – guarded almost every possession by Caldwell-Pope, emerging as an elite perimeter defender – certainly qualifies.
“When he gets it going, he’s one of the best scorers in the league,” Jackson said. “He found a way to put the ball in the basket, hit free throws – 10 for 10 – just played well tonight.”
And the Pistons had no counterpunch, couldn’t figure out a way to make the Clippers pay for guarding power forwards with point guards or vice versa.
“Feel like we had control,” Jackson said. “We just didn’t finish it.”