DETROIT – Bah humbug. The Pistons stuffed a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings. Santa moved them to the naughty list.
Any Christmas clichés we might be missing?
Because we could trot out the basketball clichés if that makes you feel any better about the 98-95 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, who carried an 8-23 record into Sunday’s matinee and ended it by tagging the Pistons with a losing record that surely will sit like a stone in their stomachs over the holiday break.
“We were just bad through three quarters and put ourselves in a hole and then didn’t get it done at the end,” Blake Griffin said, summing it up pretty concisely.
The last Pistons lead came midway through the first quarter when it was 10-9. They trailed by 17 late in the second quarter, by 14 at halftime and by 13 after three quarters. A rally sparked by Langston Galloway’s scoring – he had their first 14 fourth-quarter points – and a defense anchored by Zaza Pachulia put the Pistons in position to win, but it somehow seemed fitting that they couldn’t get over the hump.
Twice in the last two minutes the Pistons were within a point with the ball and a chance to lead. The first time, Reggie Jackson missed a 3-point shot. The second time, Griffin missed two free throws.
“We��ve just got to be more focused,” said Griffin, as terse and downcast as he’s been all season. “We’ve got to be better. I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to hit shots when my team depends on it.”
The loss gives the Pistons a 15-16 record with 11 of their next 17 games coming on the road. After losing at Charlotte on Friday night, when Dwane Casey cited an insufficient “give a crap” level, it seemed likely the Pistons would come out looking to make amends.
“We should’ve come out today as mad as a bunch of hornets, like a wet hen,” Casey said. “Playing and going at people. And we didn’t do it until the fourth quarter and it was too late.”
Galloway hit three triples to kick start the comeback, including on consecutive possessions to pare a 14-point deficit to eight with nine minutes to play. His 18 points, 16 coming in the fourth quarter, led the Pistons on a day Griffin settled for 15 and hit just 1 of 7 3-pointers and Andre Drummond finished with 13 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks but played only two seconds of the fourth quarter – coming in as a rebounder for Griffin’s second failed free-throw attempt and coming right back out when the Pistons fouled on the miss – as Casey rode Pachulia to the finish line.
“He screened, he rolled, he had great (dribble handoffs), I thought. He got us going,” Casey said. “He was out there talking. It’s nothing Dre didn’t do, but I thought that group, as I always do, leave ’em in there when they’re rolling like that.”
Trailing by three with 12.5 seconds left after four Jeremy Lin free throws sandwiched a Jackson driving dunk, the Pistons wound up with a missed Galloway layup try that came with five seconds to play.
“(The play) was for a three, but they took that away so we were just trying to get an easy two real fast to try to get us down one and foul real fast,” Galloway said. “Just blew the layup. I’ve got to make those.”
But that’s the corner into which the Pistons boxed themselves with their lethargic first three quarters. Look no farther than the rebounding numbers, which favored Atlanta 54-41 overall and 15-5 on the offensive end.
“I thought the key to the game was on the boards,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. “Any time you play Detroit, especially with Drummond, it’s always the point of emphasis.”
Galloway thought there was carryover from the Charlotte loss despite Casey’s pregame admonition to beware of the Hawks, who came in having won back-to-back road games against Washington and New York.
“Just didn’t bring it,” he said. “It was a frustrating night and then tonight we were trying to battle our way out of it. It was kind of like stuck on us. Once we got to the fourth quarter and realized we have to figure this out, we got out of it a little bit. Now we have to get ready for Washington on Wednesday.”
“We can sit here and make all the excuses we want to,” Casey said. “The key is we did not bring it for three quarters, bottom line, and it’s on all of us. … If you don’t play hard, we’re going to be sitting there feeling this way throughout the rest of the year. That’s the decision we have to make.”