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The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue
– Jonas Jerebko, back in the starting lineup at power forward after Chris Wilcox spent the last 10 games there, might be a little harder to take out after his 16-point, nine-rebound night. Jerebko hadn’t looked as comfortable at power forward as at small forward during a four-game stint there following Tayshaun Prince’s return from his back injury – before the knee injury that sidelined him for another six games forced Jerebko’s return to small forward – but he certainly looked at home against Orlando.
BLUE COLLAR – Jason Maxiell has flashed signs lately that he’s inching closer to the form of 2007-08 when he was a valuable reserve big man behind Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess and earned a four-year contract extension. In 15:24, Maxiell knocked down four of five shots and grabbed four rebounds to go with eight points. He also battled Dwight Howard hard and helped limit him to just nine shot attempts, though the Pistons did send Howard to the line 18 times – where he converted only eight.
RED FLAG – The Pistons are playing this season under the corollary to Murphy’s Law: Every bit of good news must be accompanied by at least one bit of bad. To that end, one game after getting Ben Gordon back from injury, Charlie Villanueva went down with back spasms. Will Bynum remains out with his sprained left ankle. “When I tried to go out there in layup line, it just didn’t feel right,” Villanueva said. “Doesn’t feel right now. Doesn’t feel good at all. I can’t even straighten up my back right now.”
Not given the anguish the Pistons have laid at Orlando’s feet the past seven years. Since the start of their 2003-04 championship season, the Pistons had won 26 of 33 games, playoffs included, against Orlando. That included a 3-0 record a year ago when the Pistons finished under .500 and the Magic went to the NBA Finals, and a win at The Palace this season accomplished without Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince.
That November win marked a coming out of sorts for Jonas Jerebko, thrust into the lineup in the season’s fourth game for the injured Prince. Though he didn’t score that night, he made an impression on everyone for the way he shackled Vince Carter and the fearlessness he exhibited in his first NBA start.
Fast forward to Sunday, when in a game the Pistons took to the final seconds before losing 91-86, the Pistons at least might have shut down the revolving door John Kuester has employed at power forward. Jerebko got the start for Chris Wilcox and gave the Pistons 16 points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes and got his hands on loose balls all night.
“I just tried to bring energy and do what the team needs,” Jerebko said in a locker room that didn’t draw any consolation from a far better showing than in Friday’s blowout loss to Miami. “It was a step in the right direction. We played better.”
Just not well enough to beat a team riding high in the East, coming in off of wins over Boston and Atlanta in the previous three nights. The Pistons spotted Orlando an 11-point lead in the first five minutes – the Magic four of five from the 3-point line – but came back to lead by seven in the third quarter and by one entering the fourth.
Down three with 9.5 seconds left, Kuester designed a play in which Ben Gordon was supposed to go to the basket and get a quick two points. But Gordon caught the ball beyond the 3-point arc and momentarily had an open look before Rashard Lewis flashed at him, forcing Gordon to give the ball up in mid-air to Prince. Prince zipped it back to Gordon in the corner, who this time was swarmed by Lewis and Matt Barnes and attempted another mid-air return pass to Prince. But Anthony Johnson came from the weak side to intercept the pass and effectively seal the win.
“We were going for two,” Kuester said. “The whole idea was we had another 20 (second timeout). The idea was BG get it and go. And we had Lewis switch out on him and we wanted him to go ahead and take the ball to the basket. We were looking for two.”
The loss wrapped up a hugely disappointing six-game home stand to close January with a 1-5 record after opening it was a rousing win over Boston. At least Kuester came out of this one, unlike Friday’s Miami loss, with encouraging signs across several fronts.
“Our guys really competed tonight,” he said. “I thought we competed and I thought we had some very good performances from certain people. Defensively, we did a great job at times covering for one another.”
Rodney Stuckey gave Kuester 18 points and seven assists with just one turnover in 35 minutes and Tayshaun Prince “started to show life,” as Kuester said, in his fifth game back from a knee injury with 12 points and nine boards, including a huge triple with 58 seconds left to pull the Pistons within a point.
But Jerebko’s performance was as heartening as anything.
“Part of it dealt with the matchups with Lewis at the four for them,” Kuester said of the decision to move Jerebko back into the starting lineup. “We had to make sure we had some energy. I thought Jonas did a really nice job, going to the boards. Even if he didn’t have rebounds, he was keeping things alive.”
If Kuester was of a mind to consider another logical option to start opposite Lewis, his hand was forced just before tipoff when he learned that Charlie Villanueva couldn’t play due to back spasms.
So it was on to Jerebko, whom the Pistons viewed Jerebko as more of a power forward than a small forward coming into the season. But he changed their thinking by holding up well defensively against a smorgasbord of the league’s top small forwards. When Prince came back to the lineup after missing 26 games with a back injury, Jerebko immediately switched over to start at power forward. But that experiment lasted only four games and Jerebko later admitted he felt more comfortable at small forward.
Lewis is an unorthodox four, so it remains to be seen how Jerebko fares against more conventional power forwards.
“It all depends on matchups,” he said after Sunday’s loss. “But I don’t care. As long as I’m on the court, I’m happy.”
If he doesn’t get overpowered by stronger post players, Jerebko’s relentless hustle and knack for running the floor gives the Pistons a nice weapon – a big guy who’ll beat his man downcourt for easy points two or three times a game. He did it early in the third quarter off a Dwight Howard miss, drawing a foul to prevent a layup, and made two free throws to put the Pistons ahead 53-50.
They couldn’t close it out, and their record, now 15-31, probably means the rest of the season will be filled with nights where the Pistons will be looking for meaning beyond wins and losses. Maybe in this latest loss, they found significant meaning in their future at power forward.
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