FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Thursday night’s 115-112 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Little Caesars Arena
SCRIPT, FLIPPED – The Pistons came back from 15 down to win at Cleveland on Tuesday. So Cleveland came back from 13 down to beat the Pistons in their first game home after six road games and two weeks away. The Pistons had a chance to win at the end of regulation on Derrick Rose’s jump shot and a chance to tie – after a Cleveland turnover – on Rose’s triple at the overtime buzzer. Rose played a season-high 36 minutes and scored 27 points and Andre Drummond recorded his second straight 20-20 game with 28 points and 23 rebounds. But he won’t be happy with a defense that allowed the NBA’s 25th-ranked offense to shoot 53 percent – or saw Cleveland’s offensively limited veteran center Tristan Thompson go off for 35 points to go with his 14 rebounds. The kid backcourt of Collin Sexton (19 points) and Darius Garland (20) also had big nights for the Cavaliers.
SEKOU’S HOME START – The last time Sekou Doumbouya played at Little Caesars Arena, he was a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option. He returned as a member of the starting lineup, making his fifth consecutive start. After getting off to a quick start – an athletic move for a twisting layup against Kevin Love and a 3-pointer – he was slowed by foul trouble. Two of the three first-half fouls he picked up, which limited him to 11 minutes, were ill-advised – something that plagued him in his first start against the Clippers but hadn’t been a significant issue in the past three games. He picked up his fourth foul less than two minutes into the second half and sat until early in the fourth quarter. His best play in the fourth quarter was saving a tough pass along the baseline, gathering himself without panicking and finding Bruce Brown for a layup. Doumboya also hit a big corner three during the 9-0 fourth-quarter run. Doumbouya finished with eight points, a rebound and an assist in just 20 minutes.
BROWN’S GROWTH – One of the more significant developments over the past month has been Bruce Brown’s growth as a scorer – and a mostly efficient scorer, at that. After recording seven double-digit scoring games in the first 25 games, Brown has scored in double figures in seven of the past 12 before scoring 17 in Thursday’s loss to make it eight of 13. The progress has been spurred mostly by Brown’s greater certainty in picking his spots and then becoming a better finisher inside. A big part of becoming a better finisher is exercising better judgment of the shots to take. Brown has developed a nice touch around the restricted circle and is content to take shots from that area instead of consistently challenging shot-blockers at the rim. He’s also shown a better feel for pace and changing speeds when using screens to set up defenders. In addition to his 17 on 6 of 14 shooting points, Brown led the Pistons with eight assists and chipped in four rebounds.