FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Friday night’s 116-111 overtime win over the Houston Rocket at Little Caesars Arena
OT, AGAIN – When the Pistons opened the third quarter with an 11-2 run to take a 14-point lead, there was fleeting hope they’d win without having to sweat the finish for a change. Fat chance. Houston responded with an 11-1 run to pull within four points and – again, like always when these teams play – it came down to the final few minutes. The game was all offense early but became mud wrestling over the last quarter-plus and – like the past six Detroit-Houston games, all decided by less than 10 points – it went to the wire, overtime in fact, the fourth for the Pistons this season. James Harden’s 20-footer with 27 seconds left put Houston ahead 96-95, but Blake Griffin answered with a 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds to play – saving a possession that didn’t really produce the shot the Pistons would have wanted – to give the Pistons a two-point lead. Houston forced overtime on Eric Gordon’s layup that just crawled over the rim with a tenth of a second to play. Harden, who scored 43 points when Houston won 126-124 two nights earlier and hit 19 of 19 free throws, had 33 this time and went 12 of 14 at the line. Blake Griffin, coming off a 37-point game on Wednesday at Houston, finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Reggie Jackson scored 22 points, 19 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Griffin’s assist to Reggie Bullock for a corner three midway through the overtime put the Pistons ahead for good at 106-103.
DRUMMOND A FORCE – The pattern noticeable in Wednesday’s 126-124 loss at Houston held in Friday’s rematch: The Pistons were a much better match for the Rockets when Andre Drummond was on the floor than when he sat. Drummond finished with 23 points, 20 rebounds, five blocks and three steals and he finished with a plus-16 plus/minus mark. At one point late in the second quarter, James Harden – whose pick-and-roll forays had been Houston’s bread-and-butter both Wednesday and in his 15-point first quarter Friday – had two straight driving layups blocked by Drummond. Drummond’s five blocks were a season high. Houston’s Clint Capela also had a huge game, recording a 20-20 of his own with 29 points and 21 rebounds. Many of Capela’s points came off of lobs as Drummond was drawn away from the rim to cut off penetration from Harden or Chris Paul.
BROWN’S BACK – Pistons rookie Bruce Brown started the opener with Reggie Bullock and Stanley Johnson were unavailable and started two other games when Bullock was out with a sprained ankle, but he’d also not played in seven of the 15 games coming into Friday night. But his defense earned him a shot in the first half and he made the most of it. His best stretch came over four minutes midway through the second quarter when he picked up James Harden after Harden returned with 7:37 to play and Houston ahead by a point. When Brown checked out with 3:33 to go the Pistons led by seven. Harden, after scoring 15 points in the first quarter, was held to two points in the second. Brown came on in the fourth quarter with the Pistons trailing by five and 10:17 to play. Houston scored just four points in the next five minutes and Brown, after picking Harden and forcing a foul to prevent a layup, hit two free throws with 38 seconds left to put the Pistons ahead 95-94. Brown scored on a driving layup and a dunk off of his steal in the first half and finished with seven points. Harden, who scored 15 points and hit 5 of 7 shots in the first quarter, finished 9 of 27 – a measure of Brown’s effectiveness, for the most part.