The second-half debut confirmed what the Pistons learned in the first half of the season: They’ve got a certifiable star in Jerami Grant, a lot of young guys they like and a lot of experimenting ahead of them over the second half of it.
Grant, looking refreshed after carrying a heavy burden over the season’s first two-plus months, scored 32 points as the Pistons came out of the All-Star break with a 105-102 loss to Charlotte. It was Grant’s first game since Feb. 28 – he sat out the final two games with a quad injury – and he appeared explosive and rejuvenated.
But as it was in the 10-26 first half, it wasn’t quite enough to produce a win at Charlotte, which has improbably won 11 straight over the Pistons and is gunning for a playoff berth this season, evening its record at 18-18 with Thursday’s win.
As it forever was and remains in the NBA, a young team got beat by a series of little breakdowns that determine many of the vast amount of games that get to the five-minute mark with the outcome in doubt. This time it was especially so as neither team led by more than four points in the fourth quarter until Charlotte’s Terry Rozier hit a triple with 9.1 seconds left to put the Hornets ahead by five.
“I think it’s everything,” rookie Saddiq Bey said of the areas of emphasis required to turn those narrow losses into wins. “Not turning the ball over. We get good looks; sometimes they don’t go in. Just every facet of the game – turn the ball over to rebounding to guarding your man. Every aspect of the game. We can chip away at it and just get better at everything.”
Rozier scored 12 of his 17 points in the last 3:11 and that came as no surprise to Dwane Casey. If he had a quibble with his team on a night he again lauded their effort and refusal to roll over – Charlotte led by 16 during a first half in which the Pistons turned it over 10 times and shot 6 of 26 from the 3-point line – it was letting the guy he warned them would erupt late get loose.
“He’s a professional scorer. We don’t tip our cap; we should be upset,” Casey said. “That was something we talked about. The scouting report, most of his points come in the fourth quarter. That was one of the last things we told our guys – got to be connected, got to be physical with him. That was no surprise. We’ve got to do a better job of getting physical with him, make him put it on the floor multiple times. It was way too easy for him.”
Grant had to work for everything, as has become routine. He now dominates opposition scouting reports. Charlotte had great difficulty keeping Grant out of the paint and wound up 8 of 9 at the foul line in addition to collecting eight rebounds and four assists.
The cost of Grant’s extended rest was the touch on his deep jump shot. He missed his first six triples before draining two straight in that back-and-forth fourth quarter.
“I thought he looked good,” Casey said. “He got hit going to the rim quite a bit, got rewarded. He’s got to continue to do that – attack the rim, finish. He did a great job of kicking it out. He’s becoming that go-to guy for us.”
The Pistons committed just four second-half turnovers and hit 9 of 20 triples after halftime – one of them, and a big one, off the hand of rookie center Isaiah Stewart. It came with 3:24 to play and put the Pistons ahead 93-90.
“It was big time. Excited for him,” said Bey, who scored 14 and padded his lead among rookies by making four more 3-pointers in nine attempts. “He works on that every day to be versatile like that and stretching the floor out. It’s no surprise. I’ve seen him work on that every day.”
Casey has said all along that Stewart would eventually represent a perimeter threat and his three baskets – without a miss – in Charlotte came from all three levels: a layup, a mid-range jump shot and a triple. He finished with seven points, eight boards and two assists in a tidy 23-minute stint.
“Isaiah has great ball skills,” Casey said. “He can shoot the ball. That’s who he’s going to be. I loved that he took that shot. He stepped right into it. It wasn’t forced. He took what the game gave to him and knocked it down.”
One other young guy who had a game worth noting: Svi Mykhailiuk. Though the 3-point numbers weren’t dazzling – 3 of 10 – Mykhailiuk registered a career-best eight assists, including the set-up on Stewart’s triple and both of Grant’s fourth-quarter bombs. Casey talked about him before the game and got around to talking about how minutes would be fought over in the season’s second half.
“As I told the team, there’s not going to be a set rotation with everybody coming back and getting healthy. So just be ready when your number is called because we have a number of guys who have played well. … There’s a lot of similar talents there that have earned playing time.”
Figuring out how it all fits together – and who best fits around the constant, Grant – will be one of the driving missions of the season’s second half.