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Pistons rally again from big deficit to score critical OT win over Blazers

AUBURN HILLS – There’s not quite the same feeling of boundless possibilities as the Pistons ended Stan Van Gundy’s second season exuding, but they’ve certainly recaptured the aura of a street-brawling team.

For the third time in their last six games, the Pistons came back from at least 13 points down in the second half to win a game Tuesday at The Palace. They trailed by 15 after three quarters to win at Toronto, but 14 after three to beat Charlotte last week and by 13 late in the third quarter in Tuesday’s 120-113 overtime win over Portland.

“We’re playing with a lot of fight, playing with a lot of fire,” Andre Drummond said. “When things get tough, we really come together. We’re not out of the game, ever.”

You can thank Marcus Morris for the fact they didn’t get run out of the game early, though. The Pistons were 3-0 against Portland over the last two seasons on the strength of their scoring, averaging 122.7 in that time against one of the league’s flimsiest defenses. But they did it largely on the 1-2 punch of Drummond and Reggie Jackson with a healthy dose of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope thrown in.

This time, it was Morris who carried them. He scored 10 of their 19 first-quarter points as the Pistons managed just four points in the first six minutes and trailed by 10. He never really slowed down, finishing with a career-best 37 points – he scored 36 in a Feb. 2 win over Minnesota – to go with eight boards, six assists and zero turnovers.

“I thought that might have been the best game he’s played since he’s been here,” Stan Van Gundy said. “Marcus has played a lot of good basketball for us, but that might be the best game he’s played since he’s been here, overall, doing everything. He carried us for a long stretch of that game.”

The Pistons went from sluggish to overpowering on offense, scoring 65 points in the third and fourth quarters. From 13 down with four minutes to go in the third quarter, the Pistons outscored Portland 32-12 over the next nine minutes. They led by eight with 4:27 left in regulation, but again had to come back after Portland surged with an 11-1 run.

They dodged one bullet when Caldwell-Pope picked up a technical foul with 11 seconds, arguing a no-call on his jump shot with the Pistons leading by two points, and saw Damian Lillard miss the technical free throw before tying the game with 2.8 seconds to go on a driving layup.

Morris missed a game-winning baseline 18-footer, but atoned quite nicely in overtime, hitting 15-, 16- and 18-footers – the middle shot coming despite a Mo Harkless foul that Morris converted into a three-point play – to score the Pistons’ first seven points as they opened a five-point lead.

“Marcus got it going. We were giving him the ball every possession to see how far he could go and he rarely missed,” Drummond said. “If he did, we got opportunities for offensive rebounds to bring the ball back out.”

From there, the defense took over. The Pistons held Portland to two points on its first seven possessions of overtime. The Trail Blazers hit 1 of 8 shots in overtime, scored four points and committed three of their 24 turnovers. The Pistons were outshot 43 percent to 52 percent, but took 20 more shots and nine more free throws in large measure due to the 24-8 turnover disparity.

“There was a lot of energy,” Aron Baynes said of the overtime defense. “Everybody was up into their man, just not giving them easy looks. Everything was contested. They weren’t getting to the exact spots they wanted to. That’s what we need to do. We need to go out there and be the aggressor on defense.”

Baynes was again a big part of a forceful bench performance with nine points and six boards in 23 minutes. Stanley Johnson played beyond the evidence of the box score, though his six points, seven boards and two steals were critical; Van Gundy kept him on Allen Crabbe, who finished with 13 points but only got off seven shots. Tobias Harris scored 11 points and wound up a team-leading plus-23.

But the unequivocal bench star was Ish Smith, who played 19 minutes after halftime – Van Gundy brought Reggie Jackson back for two fourth-quarter minutes to rest Smith – and finished with 12 points, seven assists and a career-high seven steals.

“He’s a bucket load of energy, that guy, both offensively and defensively,” Baynes said. “He beats everyone down the floor and he’s dribbling the ball. It’s just great to be out there and playing with him how he’s playing right now.”

Van Gundy said he went back to Smith after Jackson’s brief stint for defense with Jackson having trouble keeping Lillard out of the paint. Lillard finished with 34 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Caldwell-Pope spent his night on C.J. McCollum, who finished with 25 points but was 0 of 3 in overtime and missed his last three 3-point shots after making his first four.

“Those guards are great and they took half of their shots tonight,” Van Gundy said. “They are great players and they got it rolling. We did a better job in the overtime, but we were active and got our hands on balls. The lineup that played well in overtime defended really well – Ish, Pope, Stanley, Marcus and Andre.”

The Pistons got some good news out of Chicago, too, where the Bulls were crushed by Denver to allow the Pistons to pull within a game of the Bulls for the No. 7 seed. And as good as the Pistons have been at coming from behind in February, which concluded with them at 8-4 with those three comeback wins from big deficits in their last six games, the possibilities might be boundless after all.

“That’s not a good formula,” Van Gundy said of digging big holes and rallying late. “We’ve got a lot more fight now. It’s a really good thing. Our guys have been fighting really hard. On a frustrating night where we couldn’t make shots, they fought.”