DENVER – The Pistons never feared going 0-41 on the road, but the longer the drought extends the deeper it burrows into your psyche.
“To be totally honest with you, we just wanted to get a road win,” Ish Smith said after the 106-95 win over Denver to snap the 0-5 road streak that opened the season. “Get off the schneid. We’ve been playing so well at home. Oh, my goodness. We play some great basketball at home. And then, on the road, defensively we kind of lack a little bit. And that’s OK. That happens. But it can’t happen any more. We’ve got to get over that and I thought that’s what tonight represented – just keep grinding it out.”
As they did a week ago when they got out to a 20-4 lead and cruised to a win over Denver at The Palace, the Pistons again hit first and emphatically. They led 36-21 after the first quarter, fueled by eight Denver turnovers – seven of them Pistons steals – that led to 13 points. Three of them created breakaway Pistons layups or dunks.
Once the Nuggets stopped self-inflicting their wounds, the game tightened. It was an eight-point Pistons lead at halftime and then a rash of fouls gave the Nuggets 15 third-quarter free throws good for 12 points. On three occasions in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets pulled within four.
Again, horrific 3-point shooting threatened to undermine a solid two-way effort. Stan Van Gundy thought the Pistons probably played their best all-around game of the season’s first nine in Friday���s loss at San Antonio, but they shot 5 of 25 from the 3-point line and 1 of 12 in the second half when the Spurs were knocking down 7 of 11.
It was more of the same at Denver, the Pistons making just 4 of 18 while Denver hit 9 of 25.
But the Pistons got bailed out by their forwards – the three-headed rotation of Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris and Jon Leuer. They’ve played practically every meaningful minute this season at the two forward spots, reducing Stanley Johnson to backup shooting guard behind Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
All three of Harris, Morris and Leuer carried the Pistons for stretches Saturday. They combined for 50 points – Harris 19, Morris 17, Leuer 14 – and all made better than half of their shots.
The most critical stretch was Morris’ in the third quarter. After missing an open transition three on the first possession of the half to see his numbers fall to 1 of 5 for the game, Morris drained four straight jump shots to keep Denver from overtaking them.
“He got into his rhythm,” Smith said. “He’s on my team, so I’m going to be biased. I think he’s one of the best one-on-one players in our league. Once he gets in a rhythm, it’s hard to stop him.”
Van Gundy wasn’t particularly concerned with Morris’ recent shooting slump, but he was certainly appreciative that he pulled out of it in the middle of a tough game – and with the Pistons playing their third game in four nights.
“Marcus’ confidence is great. Then he got in his game a little bit,” Van Gundy said. “I said I didn’t think we had given him enough of that last night. Got him in his little isolation game against (Kenneth) Faried.”
The Pistons found something that worked against Denver, which switched on virtually every pick and roll and wound up with their point guards trying to stop Pistons forwards.
“We had a couple of possessions where we didn’t, but, by and large, we were able to exploit their switches and get shots over the top,” Van Gundy said. “Jon had three or four buckets against point guards; Tobias had at least two buckets against point guards; Marcus had at least two buckets against a point guard. We did a good job exploiting that and got shots over the top and got people going.”
Their point guards pitched in, too, Smith finishing with 10 points and eight assists and Beno Udrih nine and five. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 14 and was a team-high plus-22 in his 35 minutes. Andre Drummond had 14 points and 12 rebounds and, when he picked up three quick fouls and had to sit with more than seven minutes left in the third quarter, Aron Baynes came on with the Pistons ahead by seven points – and, when he sat 15 minutes later, they still led by seven.
“We had a lot of guys contribute to this one,” Van Gundy said.
“It was big,” said Leuer, who recorded his first double-double with 10 rebounds to go with his 14 points. “We hadn’t had a road win yet and capping off this road trip with a win is big. Gives us some confidence going into the next road game.”