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In Grind City, Pistons pair shut-down D, big 3s to pull out a ‘gut-check’ win

MEMPHIS –When Dillon Brooks tipped home a Memphis basket midway through the fourth quarter, the faith of Pistons fans surely went to a low flicker.

Every indication pointed to a loss. It was the finale of a four-game road trip that began with three straight losses. It was the second night of a back to back against a team with a history of playoff success and a proven home-court advantage.

Here’s what overcomes all of that: 3-point makes and defensive stops.

Luke Kennard hit triples on successive possessions 47 seconds apart and the Pistons held Memphis scoreless on six straight trips. When the dust cleared, that one-point lead had swelled to 14 in a little more than three minutes and the Pistons got out of Dodge with a 101-94 win.

“It’s a good win because we needed a win,” Blake Griffin said. “But on top of that, second night of a back to back, four games on the road. We’ll take it however we can get it.”

How badly did Dwane Casey and Griffin want to pocket a win? Griffin played more than 21 minutes of the second half – and gave Casey a raised eyebrow when he sent Andre Drummond on for him with 8:23 to go and the Pistons up by five. His respite was brief; Griffin was back on the floor 1:15 later.

“When that win was within reach, you get a little extra boost,” said Griffin, who scored 26 points, grabbed eight boards and dealt seven assists. “It’ll be nice to have two days here at home and get back to it on Saturday.”

The Pistons trailed by four at halftime when Casey sent them back out with this message: “Coming out of the locker room, I said it’s not our offense that’s going to win this game. It’s our defensive stops. They’re a team that will pick you apart with passes. They’ll pick you apart with cuts. We did a good job of handling that.”

Memphis didn’t score a point for more than five minutes of the third quarter and got its first basket of the second half more than six minutes after it began. But the Pistons didn’t take the lead for good until a Kennard basket with 3:23 left in the quarter. Still, he was just 2 of 9 from the field when he hit the first of his two hugely important triples.

And just before those two shots … well, let Kennard tell it.

“There was one before that where I should have shot a three, but I drove it and ended up that it got deflected out of bounds. Blake got on me a little bit and told me to shoot the ball, so next play down, I think, I shot it.”

It was Griffin’s pass that found him in the corner for the first triple. The next time down, Griffin and Kennard wound up isolated on the same side of the floor, but the Pistons had no advantage created when the shot clock was inside of five. Kennard, a good 4 feet behind the line, let it fly to beat the clock and swished it cleanly.

“I just said to him, his mentality in those situations should be that we’re up 20 and he just hit two shots,” Griffin said. “That’s the type of shooter he is. He’s a great shooter and he knows the flow of the game, has a great feel for the game. If he shoots eight corner threes and misses all eight, I want him to shoot the next one, too.”

Griffin wasn’t the only one who reacted to Kennard passing up that shot. On the sideline, Casey made a shooting motion with his left hand to remind Kennard again to shoot without hesitation.

“He’s got to be aggressive,” Casey said. “He’s got to take the first one. You’re not going to be more open than you are when you first catch it. But Luke again came in and gave us some good minutes.”

The Pistons got just enough from a handful of others to supplement Griffin’s 26: 16 from Reggie Jackson, who hit 4 of 8 triples; 13 apiece for Reggie Bullock and Kennard, who was abashed that he missed 3 of 4 free throws with the Pistons protecting the lead in the final minutes; 11 apiece from Andre Drummond and Langston Galloway.

But Casey proved prophetic. It wasn’t their offense so much as their defense than won them a game that felt like it needed to be won. Memphis was held to 12 third-quarter points and 39 second-half points. The Grizzlies shot 34 percent in the second half and just 1 of 8 from the 3-point arc.

“We got stops. We were able to push the ball. We got good shots and we moved the ball as a team,” Kennard said. “Defense. That’s where it starts with us.”

“The thing I take away is defensively I thought we put together several strings of stops,” Griffin said. “And that’s what it takes to win games on the road, five stops, six stops in a row. That was the most encouraging thing about it.”

It was a game won with the grit Casey implores from his team against an opponent that trademarked Grind City as its identity. The Pistons held Memphis’ two pillars of its generation of success, Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, well below their norms: Conley went scoreless with one assist, missing all eight of his shots, while Gasol finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.

“It was a gut check,” Casey said. “We said we’re going to have to dig ourselves out, shovelful by shovelful. And tonight was the first shovelful of dirt.”