Win or lose, the Pistons were still prohibitive favorites to land in the playoffs. But it was a lot better wrapping it up with a win before home fans against the last team with a chance to catch them from behind than it would have been to clinch on somebody else’s loss on your day off.
“Definitely happy to get it ourselves,” Reggie Jackson said after the 112-99 win over Washington clinched the Pistons’ first playoff berth in seven years. “I think it makes it more sweet that this is a team that really beat us up three straight times. To get it at home against a team that’s chasing us, to knock them out and clinch our spot, is good. I don’t think we could have written the story any better.”
And he was the lead author on that story, scoring 14 of his game-high 39 points in the fourth quarter when the Pistons pulled away – for a third time in a game that see-sawed dramatically – by outscoring Washington 20-7 over the final eight-plus minutes from a 92-all tie.
“We just didn’t have an answer for Reggie Jackson,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said.
Jackson got the Pistons off and running with a 14-point first quarter, hitting 6 of 7 shots and both of his 3-point tries. The Pistons made 7 of 9 triples in the first quarter and 9 of 11 to start the game. But as easily as the points came early, they needed to rely on their defense down the stretch, keeping the Wizards to less than a point a minute over those critical final eight minutes.
“We did it a lot the way we’ve done it most of the year – fourth quarter,” Stan Van Gundy said. “Fourth quarter we played really well and really hard. Obviously, Reggie was fabulous. He’s had a tough month, been in a slump, and he busted out in a huge way tonight and really took control of that game. And then our defense and rebounding the last four and a half minutes were really good.”
Aron Baynes was at the center of it, playing the last 11 minutes when Andre Drummond missed two foul shots to open the fourth quarter with Washington signaling its intent to keep fouling him. Drummond wore his frustration visibly on the bench, seated and almost emotionless while his teammates celebrated the clinching rally, but Van Gundy dismissed any suggestion of a lingering issue.
“This guy’s an All-Star,” he said. “And he wants to be out there getting the job done for his organization and his teammates – and he’s relegated to the bench because there’s one thing he doesn’t do real well. That’s a really frustrating thing for a guy of his caliber to have to sit there and watch at the end of a game like this. … It’s not a matter of who played well, who didn’t play well. It matters we got our 43rd win and we got in the playoffs. That’s what matters.”
The Pistons’ win not only clinched a playoff spot, it vaulted them over Indiana – which lost at Toronto despite the Raptors sitting All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, plus Luis Scola – into the No. 7 position. The teams are even in the loss column, though, and Indiana holds the tiebreaker. The win also lifted the Pistons a season-high six games over .500 and gives them a 16-8 record over their last 24 games – or since Tobias Harris became a starter.
“That’s been my main focus throughout all these games – how to get better and how could I help the team,” said Harris, who knocked down three first-quarter triples without a miss and finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. “We had great support from our fans tonight. They gave us a lot of energy and they kept us going.”
Never more than in that fourth quarter, when Washington – which shot 49 percent through three quarters and scored 25, 30 and 29 points – was held to 15 points on 26 percent shooting. The Pistons weren’t much more efficient, shooting only 33 percent with Jackson making three of their four baskets. But they only took 12 shots in the quarter because they kept finding themselves at the foul line, where they drained 17 of 19 in the quarter – Drummond’s two early misses the only blemishes – and were 24 of 24 for the game aside from Drummond’s 2 of 5. Baynes went 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter, Jackson 7 of 7.
Staunch defense at winning time. Clutch free throws. A point guard who maintains his poise in the chaotic moments of big games. Those are all pretty good ingredients to carry into the postseason.
All the way around, it was a very good way to end the longest playoff drought in the Eastern Conference and one that seemed interminable to a fan base spoiled by the six straight trips to the conference finals that preceded it.
“A lot more fun that it would’ve been Sunday afternoon, sitting there watching the Charlotte-Washington game to see if people get in,” said Van Gundy, who had to change into Pistons warmup gear after getting doused in ice water in the postgame locker room celebration. “And a lot better for our players because with three days off – this is the first time I’ve ever done it – we’re giving them two days off because we still get a practice on Monday. It’s time to get some rest and be ready to play those last two games and get ourselves ready to compete in the playoffs.”