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Finally! Pistons break out from 3-point line to crush Miami as Drummond dominates

That was about as close to the ideal of Stan Van Gundy’s blueprint for success as it’s gotten over the first 97 games of his Pistons reign: a dominant Andre Drummond surrounded by tenacious defenders and opportunistic 3-point shooters, all wrapped in sublimely fundamental basketball.

The Pistons made 16 3-point shots – four better than their previous season high – which was more than twice the total of their turnovers, seven. Drummond had 18 points and 20 rebounds, his final numbers, after three quarters, an indication of (a) how good he was and (b) how thoroughly the Pistons outplayed Miami – which came into the game 9-4 – in that they could afford to give him almost all of the fourth quarter off.

They held Heat stars Dwyane Wade (two points, a career low for games in which he’s played 20-plus minutes) and Chris Bosh to a combined 11 points on 4 of 18 shooting. Miami shot 40 percent, was outrebounded by double digits and committed nearly twice as many turnovers.

“They had us on our heels pretty much from the get-go,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who worked elbow to elbow with Van Gundy under Pat Riley and later as his assistant in Miami.

The get-go came 18 seconds into the game when Wade attacked the basket and Drummond swatted his shot away. He finished with a season-best five blocks. It turns out they didn’t come by happenstance.

“We had a talk yesterday in practice about me not challenging shots,” Drummond said. “So tonight I made it a job of mine to really go after everything.”

Miami came into the game No. 1 in field-goal percentage defense and No. 2 in both points per game allowed and defensive efficiency. The Pistons hung 60 points on the Heat in the first half.

It’s always dicey trying to figure out if shots falling make for good offense or if good offense leads to shots that pros usually make. For certain, Van Gundy expected the Pistons – who entered the game 30th in 3-point shooting at 29.3 percent – to see improved shooting results. But getting back to playing the type of defense that sparked their 5-1 start was the likely catalyst for everything that followed.

“Definitely, the defense sparked the offense for us,” Drummond said.

“It was great to see the ball go in. Don’t get me wrong,” Van Gundy said. “But our defense – to see Andre step up and protect the rim, even though he had to be worried about lobs to (Hassan) Whiteside. I thought that was great. But I thought all of our guys worked really hard defensively, team-wide, and that was the most gratifying thing.”

Something else that almost surely will give Van Gundy a sound Thanksgiving eve sleep, beyond the defense and 3-point shooting, was the play of his bench. A source of deep concern over the season’s first month, the bench more than held its own this time.

Anthony Tolliver hit three first-half triples and 4 of 6 for the game. Aron Baynes finished with six points, four boards and a block in less than 13 minutes. Stanley Johnson didn’t shoot well, but defended and finished with seven points, five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot. And Steve Blake allowed Reggie Jackson – 18 points, seven assists and only one turnover in 26 minutes – to sit for more than nine minutes of the first half without the lead dwindling.

“That was great,” Jackson said. “The second unit, they went out there and competed. They kept us steady. Playing with the lead is a lot more pleasing than playing from behind.”

Blake played because Spencer Dinwiddie took a knee-to-knee hit in Monday’s loss at Milwaukee. Van Gundy said the MRI was “clear,” but Dinwiddie still had some swelling. Van Gundy is more comfortable with Blake’s defense, so if he can continue to run the offense the way he did against Miami he might win his backup spot back.

“The one thing Steve is going to base his game on, and he does every night, is he defends,” Van Gundy said. “He really does a good job getting back in front of the ball on pick and rolls. That really, really helps us. You see him out there working that hard and defending, it helps everybody.”

So the Pistons avoided dipping under .500 for the first time, thumping a good team, two nights after suffering their first blowout loss of the season to a Milwaukee team that had lost its last three games by an average of 28 points. Van Gundy sensed something good from the collective reaction to that loss.

“I know how guys felt coming off the Milwaukee game,” he said. “If you’ve got a good, competitive group, which I think we do, and you lay an egg like we did up there, you’re going to come back and change it. Plus I saw the way they worked in practice yesterday and I saw the focus and energy this morning.”

“We were upset,” Jackson said. “We know we’re a better team than what we put out in Milwaukee and wanted to come out here and prove it. They made somebody pay for their beatings and we wanted to make somebody pay for ours.”