Against a middle-of-the-road offensive team – perhaps even just a really good offensive team – today's topic would be Andre Drummond. The 19 points, the 23 rebounds, the three blocked shots, the four steals.
"He jumps and it seems like he hangs in the air until he gets his hand on the ball," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle fairly whistled after the game. "That's how it looks. I've never seen a guy get his hand on so many lobs, shots – everything. I was amazed."
Maybe Carlisle has seen his own offensive wizards do what they did to the Pistons so often – score 117 points and create separation in an eye blink after a tug-of-war for most of three quarters – that it takes something else to amaze him these days. Instead of perhaps Drummond's best game of the season, the story of the night belonged to the pitch-perfect harmony of the Dallas offense.
Stan Van Gundy was left shaking his head by the Mavs, who got 32 points from Chandler Parsons, 25 more from Monta Ellis and a late-game, rally-crushing pair of jump shots by future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki to leave The Palace with a 117-106 win.
"They got everything tonight," Van Gundy said. "They got layups, they got threes, they got free throws. We didn't take anything away from them tonight. Nothing."
But the Mavs never led by more than five points until there were two minutes left in the third quarter. At the time Dallas held that five-point lead, a team that came into the game second in the league in field-goal accuracy at 48 percent was bumping along at 43 percent. The Mavs closed the game in a hail of jump shots, making 17 of their final 26 shots to finish at 50.6 and inch closer to No. 1.
That's where they came in ranked in both scoring and offensive efficiency and the Pistons didn't do anything to push them backward.
"That's a great offensive team over there," Drummond said. "They're probably the No. 1 team in the league. They do a good job of moving the ball and they know what guys can do what. They put their guys in good position to make plays."
In a matter of two minutes late in that critical third-quarter stretch, Dallas extended its lead from five to 13. There are very few teams in the league that can make the scoreboard move that fast.
"Especially if you don't get the stops that you should," Kyle Singler said. "Or at least limit them to good shots. They're going to get open shots, just the way they run their offense and the personnel they have. We could have executed and put a little more effort on the defensive end, but they can score quick and we just didn't have enough answers on the defensive end to stop them."
When Dallas was being held relatively in check from the field before their second-half spurt, the free-throw line kept them on the Pistons' heels or narrowly in the lead. The Mavs outscored the Pistons 27-13 from the line on 16 more attempts. Singler and Josh Smith both went to the bench with four fouls in the first two minutes of the third quarter.
Despite all of Dallas' offensive prowess, which included a 10 of 22 3-point shooting performance, the Pistons still got it back to five points with 2:31 left on another late, big Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 3-point shot. Parsons and Nowitzki drained triples on the Mavs' next two trips, though, to extend the Pistons' home losing streak to 11.
It won't grow by much if Drummond can turn in games close to that one routinely, that's for sure. Van Gundy called a timeout four minutes into the game to gently remind Drummond about some mental mistake he'd made and for the rest of the night he was a dynamo.
"After that, I thought he played with good energy," Van Gundy said. "He got up and down the floor and used his energy and athleticism to put forth the night he had. It wasn't like he was just getting easy stuff. He was running, he was working. Probably his best night of the year and he played harder than he's played, probably, especially getting up and down the floor in the second half."
"I just really base my game on playing hard, period, both on the offensive end and the defensive end," Drummond said. "Tonight was a good night for me, but we didn't win the game. They really did a good job of taking away some of the easy plays from me, but I tried to do my best to help my team get in a good position to win the game."
Drummond and Dallas veteran Tyson Chandler entered the game 1-2 in the league in offensive rebounds per game, 4.5 and 4.2. Chandler finished with 16 points and nine boards, four offensive. Seven of Drummond's 24 boards came at the offensive end.
"He's really good at tipping the ball out, so my main focus for today was to really hit him first and go after the ball," Drummond said. "I think he got maybe one tip-out, so I think I did a good job of really just taking him out of his game of getting those offensive rebounds."
Chandler, who in the past has played the rim-protector, put-back scorer role for Team USA that Drummond hopes to fill in future international competitions, left duly impressed by the youngest Piston.
"I think he's a great, young, raw talent," Chandler said. "His effort, his persistence on the glass – he's very athletic. He has a lot of potential to do some special things in this league."