CLEVELAND – The day started with sobering news on Anthony Tolliver’s MRI. A sprained knee will keep him out at least two weeks, perhaps twice that. It continued to grow bleaker with the decision to call off last week’s trade with Houston due to lingering concern over the condition of Donatas Motiejunas’ back.
The five-game losing streak the Pistons carried with them into Cleveland couldn’t have helped anyone’s mood. Or their confidence, for that matter.
But the Pistons didn’t give up on each other. And the 96-88 win they grabbed at the expense of the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference means they don’t have to give up on their season, either, which appeared to be slipping away after losses to Washington and New Orleans coming out of the All-Star break.
“Desperation,” Reggie Jackson said. “I think we’re desperate, where we’re starting to get to a point where we can’t give up games. It’s a tough stretch. We’ve got 25 more after this. So we’ve got to be hungry for each and every win. We had to find a way to come out with a win and regroup. That was the mentality coming in. We didn’t care who scored, who guarded who. Just all five guys on the court were going to compete together and find a way to come out with a win tonight.”
Cleveland, on a five-game winning streak and coming off a dazzling 23-point win at Oklahoma City without the benefit of Kyrie Irving, might have gotten a little complacent after hitting 8 of 11 shots to open the game. But the Pistons were almost as hot early, especially Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. They made their first nine shots combined and scored 22 of the 33 Pistons points in the first quarter.
They led by seven at halftime and opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run. Their eventual 17-point lead was down to seven after three quarters, but newcomer Tobias Harris and the bench opened the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run and the Pistons were ahead by 18 with 6:32 left when Cleveland made another charge, pulling within six. But Jackson hit a clutch runner, Caldwell-Pope scored off a strip of LeBron James and the Pistons got out with a much-needed win.
“NBA teams are going to make runs, so it’s really not getting discouraged,” Harris said of the two second-half surges Cleveland made. “Continue to keep our pace. That’s one thing I kept telling everybody. It doesn’t matter if we make shots, just keep our pace, just keep on running. Don’t look discouraged, because any time a team sees that, other team believes they can impose their will. We stuck to that. We had a great rhythm there and we just kept playing our game.”
Stan Van Gundy called it the best the Pistons had played since they blitzed Golden State in January. All five Pistons starters scored between the 14 points of Harris and Marcus Morris and Jackson’s 23. Caldwell-Pope had been in a dreadful shooting slump in the two games since returning from a core muscle injury that sidelined him for the four games leading into the All-Star break, but he scored 19 on 8 of 10 shooting after being 5 of 26 in the losses to Washington and New Orleans.
“I think he was really tuned in defensively,” Van Gundy said. “That’s the best defense he’s played in a long time. Sometimes, when you get your mind off your offense, especially when you’re struggling and you just get your mind off of it and just concentrate on playing real hard, you can relax a little bit.”
Morris spent much of his night guarding LeBron James, who shot 5 of 18 and finished with more turnovers (six) than baskets (five) in a 12-point night. He was 5 of 19 over his last two games.
Van Gundy, Jackson and Harris all pointed to the defense of centers Andre Drummond (16 points, 15 rebounds) and Aron Baynes in the paint, where Cleveland managed only 28 points and shot 14 of 30.
“(That) was a testament to what Aron does on the second unit, protecting the basket, and most importantly the step Dre took today protecting the basket and commanding our defense, allowing us to feel more comfortable picking up. He really controlled the game.”
The black cloud that hung over the game was the status of Stanley Johnson, who was diagnosed with a right shoulder sprain after leaving midway through the fourth quarter. Johnson, the only player who scored off the bench with 10 points, will be re-evaluated on Tuesday.
“Reggie Bullock, next man up,” Van Gundy said. “We’re getting thin at the forward spot now. We’ll have to play with three guards and things like that. It’s not ideal. It’s not exactly what we would want. But that’s where we are. It’s getting tough right now. It’s getting tough.”
The win left the Pistons at 28-29, two games behind both Charlotte and Chicago, each with 29-26 records. Seven of their next 10 games come on the road before a nine-game home stand starts in mid-March. If they can survive the next few weeks and get Tolliver and Johnson back to give themselves a fighting chance over the final month, they’ll remember this night in Cleveland fondly.
“I think the greatest thing about it was just the way we played out there – the effort, the energy level,” Harris said. “We just have to be consistent with it and come out the net game with the same attitude and the same approach.”