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Late 5-point possession lifts Boston past Pistons on Rip’s big night

AUBURN HILLS – As Larry Brown might have said, the Pistons didn’t always play the right way in Sunday’s loss to Boston.

With Brown and pretty much all of his Goin’ to Work Pistons on hand to celebrate one of their own as Rip Hamilton’s No. 32 was retired, Stan Van Gundy’s Pistons made less than half of their free throws, committed 17 turnovers and got outrebounded by the NBA’s No. 26 rebounding team.

“That was a big part of our loss tonight – free throws, the turnovers and the rebounds,” Tobias Harris said after the 104-98 loss to Boston. “That’s the name of the game, those three things right there.”

The Pistons trailed by 12 in the first half, cut it to four at halftime, saw it swell to 15 with a lousy start to the third quarter but had a one-point lead and the ball with a minute to play. Reggie Jackson missed an open 3-pointer, though, and Boston answered with a five-point possession: a 3-point shot from an unlikely source, rookie Jaylen Brown, who then missed his free throw when Marcus Morris was whistled for fouling him on the closeout, a miss rebounded by Marcus Smart and converted into two more free throws.

“To not get the rebound, that was the crushing one,” Van Gundy said. “That was the play that basically finished the game. It wasn’t over, but if you’re going to take one play in the game, it was the three – and the three put us down two – but then you give up the rebound on the free throw. I mean, that crushed us.”

“We have to have that,” Morris said. “Marcus Smart plays extremely hard, but we have to have that rebound.”

The Pistons, after getting torched for 24 fourth-quarter points by Isaiah Thomas in Boston’s win last month, decided to take the ball out of his hands in the fourth quarter by having their big men double Thomas on pick-and-roll plays. The risk is leaving open shooters. Brown made them pay.

“I think that was my fault,” Morris said. “I think I stayed and tried to protect the basket too long. I honestly didn’t think I fouled him. I kind of gave him the three. I let him shoot the three and he still called foul. If we want anybody on the court to shoot it, it’s probably him.”

Van Gundy had Andre Drummond (17 points, 15 rebounds) on the bench when Smart darted past Aron Baynes to grab Brown’s missed free throw due to Drummond’s 1 of 11 foul shooting. He pulled him with 4:12 remaining and the Pistons trailing by three points.

“I did think about bringing Andre back on (Brown’s) free throw, but, God, you think you can get a free-throw rebound,” Van Gundy said. “Aron didn’t get him blocked out and we give up the rebound.”

The Pistons tied it 14 seconds after Baynes had replaced Drummond on three Kentavious Caldwell-Pope free throws and took their first lead of the second half at 2:53 on Caldwell-Pope’s triple. Another Caldwell-Pope triple with 2:08 to play put the Pistons ahead 96-94.

But Morris missed a jump shot on the next possession and then Jackson missed his triple with 56 seconds to play. Van Gundy had no qualms with the shot – he chides players for passing up open 3-pointers – but admits he didn’t see it.

“I was looking down at my (play) card. I’d already called the play and the shot went up quick and I said, ‘What the hell happened?’ The ball was already up. I didn’t see the play. I was looking next play.”

“I saw Marcus Smart peeking left to right, looking for a screen, about two, three steps off me,” Jackson said. “I was within a step of the 3-point line, a shot I shoot many times, a shot I’m comfortable shooting. That’s sports. Sometimes you make it. Sometimes you don’t.”

The Pistons didn’t win all the time, or even every big game, back in the days Brown was moving the chess pieces around and Hamilton was draining jump shots just as his coach drew up the plays. But they shone often enough in the biggest moments to dictate that special nights like Sunday’s be staged. The crowd celebrated Hamilton’s big night for one last gathering of the ol’ gang at The Palace.

The storybook ending would have called for Jackson to make his three, for Brown to miss his and for today’s Pistons to grab the rebound and put an exclamation point on the night. But that’s sports. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don’t.