ATLANTA – Stan Van Gundy isn’t prone to hyperbole, so take his one-word response to the 3-0 road trip and five wins over six games – all against 2016 playoff teams – to heart.
“Incredible,” Van Gundy said after the Pistons dismantled Atlanta 121-85.
The Pistons left home Monday with a 1-8 road record for a daunting road trip to three teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings. They responded with their three highest-scoring games of the season – they averaged 118 in wins over Charlotte, Boston and Atlanta – and come home with an 11-10 record.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence. We know we can win on the road,” said Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whose 15 first-quarter points got the Pistons out to a fast start that mushroomed when they went on a 20-2 second-quarter run to lead by 19 at halftime. “We just had to figure out what we had to do and what we had to do was talk and communication. That’s what got us through the three games. Now we’ve got to go home and do the same thing.”
Caldwell-Pope finished with 23 points, one of eight Pistons in double figures. After hitting a season-high 12 triples to open the trip at Charlotte, they blew that out of the water with 17 in 29 attempts at Atlanta.
“Our ball movement’s been good and I really do think, something we’ve been stressing is, you know, shoot the ball,” Van Gundy said. “We had guys not ready to shoot, not stepping into shots, hesitating, passing up good shots. It’s hard, when you play good defensive teams, which we’ve played all week, to generate two good shots in a possession. So if you pass one up, we’re in trouble.”
Caldwell-Pope led the 3-point assault with 5 in 8 tries. Jon Leuer hit 4 in 5 off the bench and Darrun Hilliard 3 in 6.
“Just stepping into it and letting it go,” Leuer said. “You try to always shoot with a free mind and not think about it too much. When you step into it with confidence, that’s the best chance for it to go in.”
The Pistons put strong defensive games together to go with their suddenly rejuvenated offense at both Charlotte and Atlanta and were sublime offensively in their win at Boston. They also averaged 15 more rebounds a game than their three opponents on the road trip.
Andre Drummond, dominating his matchup with Dwight Howard, led the rebounding with 14, plus 14 points. But it was again a gang-rebounding mentality with Caldwell-Pope picking up eight and Smith five. Leuer had nine off the bench.
Smith has been the revelation, continuing to rack up big assist totals without turning the ball over. He had 13 assists and just one turnover against Atlanta and now has 51 assists and three turnovers over the past eight games. He leads all NBA point guards in assists-to-turnovers ratio.
“He’s our engine,” Leuer said. “He’s done a really good job of making good decisions, putting the ball where it needs to go. He’s been huge for us the last three games.”
Smith, as he always maintains, says it starts for him and the offense at the defensive end. And growing familiarity with his new teammates helps, too.
“When we’re able to get stops, then offensively we’re flying up and down the floor,” he said. “The offensive end, when we’re able to move the ball from side to side, knowing where everybody likes the ball, everybody wants their shots, it helps out a lot.”
“He’s been great,” Caldwell-Pope said. “Every rebound we get, he’s pushing it in transition. It’s been great for us. We’ve just been rolling.”
“His tempo is just incredible,” Van Gundy said. “He’s got such a great motor. Thirteen assists and one turnover tonight. And he’s scoring the ball when he needs to, too. You couldn’t play much better than he did tonight. But he’s played like that for quite a while here.”
Pretty good tempo lately for the Pistons, too. A 4-1 record against the Clippers, Thunder, Hornets, Celtics and Hawks with the last four of those games on the road – and all played without leading scorer Reggie Jackson? Even Van Gundy was left to shake his head at the turnaround for a team that had such head-scratching trouble winning or playing any semblance of defense on the road for the season’s first four weeks.
“We’ve played really well,” Van Gundy said. “You come and play like that, you’re going to have a chance every night. But to go on a trip – we were 1 and 8 on the road – and then to win three in a row against three teams ahead of us in the standings, all over .500, on the road, in four days. That’s a pretty good trip.”
Uh-huh.