FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Monday night’s 107-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks
TURNOVER TROUBLE – For the third straight game, fourth-quarter turnovers troubled the Pistons. This time is was a rash of them by Blake Griffin, who registered a triple-double through three quarters but made it a quadruple-double with four turnovers in the fourth quarter and 10 for the game. The turnovers undermined what appeared headed for an energizing victory and a big comeback. The rally started after the Pistons had fallen 15 points down late in the third quarter. A 10-0 run to end the quarter made it a four-point game and the Pistons tied it at 86 with 10 minutes left on Reggie Bullock’s fifth triple of the game and took the lead a minute later on Stanley Johnson’s triple. But Milwaukee took the lead for good at 93-91 on a Sterling Brown triple midway through the quarter. After falling behind by seven points, the Pistons pulled within two on a Bullock basket with 38 seconds left and had a chance to force overtime when they got the ball back with 14 seconds left. Griffin, however, missed two 3-point shots on the final possession. The Pistons trailed by four when Griffin and Andre Drummond returned with 5:45 to go. They would pull within a point on another Johnson triple but it was immediately answered by a Brook Lopez triple. The Bucks made their move to build a lead with about eight minutes left in the second quarter of what had been a back-and-forth game, clamping down defensively and holding the Pistons to 10 points for the rest of the half. Turnovers and missed shots at the rim fueled Milwaukee’s transition game as the Bucks finished the first half on a 22-10 run. The Pistons got just 10 first-half points from Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin, who shot a combined 3 of 14. Milwaukee finished with 29 points off of 16 Pistons turnovers while the Pistons only generated 11 points off of Milwaukee’s 11 turnovers. The Pistons also shot just 18 of 44 in the paint.
STANLEY’S BIG FINISH – The thought on Stanley Johnson since his rookie season is that if he could become even a league-average 3-point shooter he would ascend a tier or two and become the player the Pistons hoped he would be when they spent the No. 8 pick in the 2015 draft on him. Johnson is showing signs of putting it together as a shooter and had one of his best nights of his career in the fourth quarter alone. Johnson hit all four of his 3-point attempts to power the Pistons offense, scoring 16 of his 20 points in the period. The Pistons got 3-point punch from Reggie Bullock in addition to Johnson. Bullock hit 5 of 7and led the Pistons with 24 points.
LEUER STAYS PUT – Though Zaza Pachulia was available after missing Saturday’s game and Sunday’s practice with the flu, Jon Leuer stayed on as the center with the second unit. Leuer, averaging 6.6 points and 2.9 rebounds while shooting 65 percent in December games, finished with eight points and two rebounds in 14 minutes. He made his first four shots before missing his last, a 3-point attempt. He also strung together several strong defensive possessions, getting switched on to an array of Bucks players from Giannis Antetokounmpo to guards Sterling Brown or Eric Bledsoe and forcing contested shots.