MIAMI – The two bizarre losses the Pistons suffered at Memphis’ hands this season stand as the difference between their situation today and already having a playoff berth wrapped up. But at least the Grizzlies gave them a boost Tuesday, beating Chicago to pare their magic number from three to two. And Memphis owed them, Reggie Jackson said.
“Definitely. Thanks for the hook-up,” Jackson said after learning that Chicago had lost by 16 at Memphis as the Pistons were losing 107-89 at Miami. “If you didn’t do what you did twice before, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. So, yeah, they owed us. I might hit up Matt Barnes in the summer and tell him, ‘Appreciate it.’ ”
It was Barnes who hit a half-court shot to give the Pistons one of their two stunning losses to the Grizzlies this year, and while it wouldn’t take quite as much of miracle for Chicago to catch the Pistons from behind, it’s getting close. With each team having four games remaining, the Pistons, at 41-37, have a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over the Bulls. If the Pistons go 1-3, the Bulls would need to 4-0 to edge them for the final playoff spot. Washington remains alive, though a 1-3 Pistons finish would require the Wizards to go 5-0 to move ahead of them.
The Pistons don’t want to back in to the playoffs, of course, but dealing with the ups and downs is part of the learning curve Stan Van Gundy grudgingly acknowledges is a necessary part of the process.
“We’ve had some of these. It’s like Chicago went in tonight and lost at Memphis,” he said. “That’s why you’re teams that are around .500 – because you go up and down. If we consistently played well, we would be San Antonio, Golden State, Oklahoma City. We’re not. All of us teams that are down here playing like this, that’s why we are where we are – because some nights we’re good and some nights we’re bad. That’s the fact.
“Yes, we’d like to play more consistently well, but if we did we’d have 55 wins instead of 41. So that’s who we are and tonight was a really bad night and they were a lot better than us tonight.”
Miami’s been a lot better than most teams that have come through American Airlines Arena of late, winning eight of its last nine at home. The Pistons hope the Heat make it nine of 10 when they host Chicago on Thursday. And if the Pistons take care of business in Orlando on Wednesday, a Miami win over Chicago will eliminate the Bulls.
“We’ve got to win tomorrow,” Andre Drummond said. “This game is over with. Disappointing. Didn’t feel good. But we’ve got to move forward. We can’t dwell on this loss.”
The Pistons essentially gave themselves no chance to win the game with their dismal shooting, though surely Miami’s defensive posture had something to do with the numbers put up by the likes of Marcus Morris, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson, who were a combined 2 of 22. Morris, the Pistons’ best player in a torrid March run, was 0 of 7 with six turnovers.
“He’s been playing great. We haven’t seen him play like that all year,” Van Gundy said. “That’s got to be the worst game of his NBA career. He couldn’t hang on to the ball. Just one of those nights. The guy’s been playing great. I’m not going to sit here and kill him, but he had a miserable, miserable night.”
He wasn’t alone. The Pistons were 2-0 against Miami this season largely because of the disparity in 3-point shooting – Detroit 31 of 61, Miami 10 of 38 – but the law of averages caught up with them this time. The Heat went 9 of 14 with rookie Josh Richardson and Goran Dragic combining for 8 of 9, while the Pistons were 5 of 21, their starters 1 of 10.
“They did a good job trying to run us off the line and took away some looks, but at the same time I just felt like a lid was on the basket,” Jackson said. “We had some easy ones. I don’t know how many times, when I was on the bench, I counted Stanley getting layups and (Anthony Tolliver) had a few layups and I know I had a few layups. We were within 5 feet of the basket. It’s tough when you have a team night like that.”
Tobias Harris was about the only Pistons player immune to the bug, hitting 8 of 10 shots and scoring 21 points in three quarters before shutting it down. The rest of the team produced 68 points on 70 shots as the Pistons had to rally with a 9 for 20 fourth quarter to pull their shooting average up to 40 percent.
“They dominated us at both ends of the floor all night,” Van Gundy said. “And particularly on the perimeter. Both teams’ perimeter players got the exact same number of shots, 51; they made twice as many. We made 14; they made 28. Their effort, their energy, their quickness – everything – was better. There wasn’t one thing we were even competitive with them. They dominated us.”
It didn’t cost them as it might have, thanks to injury-depleted Memphis’ equally dominant win over Chicago. But the Pistons left South Florida knowing they can’t string together too many more nights like that one.
“We feel like we’re better than this,” Jackson said. “We feel we can come with better energy and more effort. Just got to take your hats off to them and try to move past this one, learn from it and get ready for a team that’s playing well in Orlando tomorrow.”