The Houston Rockets played Friday night in Boston while the Pistons had the night off and they didn't have Dwight Howard available to them for Saturday's game. If they were looking for sympathy, they should have tried getting it from any other NBA team. Not the Pistons. Not after the schedule they've endured in January and not after losing their leader in scoring and assists during their brilliant 12-3 run after waiving Josh Smith.
Speaking of whom: Smith's ballyhooed return to The Palace was notable mostly for the crowd reaction to him – boos upon entering the game, boos whenever he touched the basketball – than for his impact on the game. Smith played less than five minutes in the second half after a so-so first half – put up numbers in most every category but shot 2 of 8 – and finished with seven points, seven boards, three assists, two blocks and a steal on 3 of 11 shooting.
The night also ended with Smith leaving The Palace saddled with a loss – a fun 114-101 Pistons victory before a noisy crowd of 18,000 plus – which happened far too often in his rocky season-plus as a Piston and explains why Stan Van Gundy was ready for a future built around others.
The first two items on Van Gundy's agenda, he said, when Smith was waived to create opportunities for others, were to further develop Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Drummond had 11 points, 16 boards and three blocked shots – effective and energetic beyond the numbers – but Caldwell-Pope stole the night.
Quite literally, in the case of three Houston fast-break layups he personally aborted, twice chasing down greyhound Trevor Ariza. Caldwell-Pope did a better job on James Harden than the box score suggests, Harden finishing with 26 points, seven rebounds and nine assists after a first-half injury scare. Caldwell-Pope's offense, atop his defensive impact, more than negated Harden's influence on the game, though. He scored a season-high 28 points, hitting 6 of 11 triples, and added five rebounds and four assists in addition to his three fast-break shot blocks.
Best all-around game of his young career?
"I would say, yeah," Caldwell-Pope judged it, given the quality of the opponent he was guarding. "I kind of played on both ends tonight and I've got to continue to do that."
Van Gundy talked to the team before the gameon not worrying about offense – guard tough and let scoring happen.
"A lot of times, people say when you put that much energy into the defense, it takes away from your offense," Van Gundy said. "But I told guys today and I honestly believe this: When your focus is on your defense and other things, it takes you mind off of it. You're not worried about making shots; your concern is, 'I've got to guard James Harden.' So you're not worried at the other end; you're taking shots. I thought his energy was great all night. Not only on Harden, but how many fast-break saves did he have tonight?"
Twelve of Caldwell-Pope's points came in the fourth quarter and some of them were as big as any scored all night. Houston, down 17 after three quarters, opened the fourth on a 10-0 run. Caldwell-Pope hit triples when Houston was within seven and five points, then drained a long 2-pointer to make it an eight-point game with 3:43 left.
"It's a ballgame now," Caldwell-Pope said he remembered thinking at Houston charged. "We can't just come out and give it away. We've got to keep playing like we played in the first half."
"He's done that all year," Van Gundy said. "He's made a lot of big shots like that."
With Drummond and Greg Monroe (19 points, 12 boards) dominating inside and Caldwell-Pope's flash at both ends, somehow D.J. Augustin got a little overshadowed – thought not in the eyes of Rockets coach Kevin McHale.
"They came out and kicked our tail," he said. "We couldn't handle Augustin. They just played a lot harder than we did. We couldn't stop Augustin."
Augustin finished with 28 points, taking only 13 shots, and a season-high 12 assists in 37 minutes. Nobody has shouldered the brunt of Jennings' loss more than Augustin, who's gone from playing about 22 minutes a game to logging high 30s numbers. The four games in five nights stretch that concluded with Wednesday's 20-point loss at Philadelphia when the six primary Pistons perimeter players shot 8 of 44 (they were 25 of 49 Saturday) were telling of the effects of fatigue.
"After that Philly back to back, I told coach I was hurting," Augustin said. "He gave us that next day off, which I appreciated, and we all came back with a lot of energy for this next game and it really paid off."
"He was tremendous. He really was," Van Gundy said. "He was on the attack right from the start of the game and that's big for us. When we're playing well, Brandon and D.J. both were on the attack. We're better when we're pushing and we're on the attack and he did it all night tonight."
The whole team did, really, Van Gundy calling the energy they exhibited to start the game "tremendous" as well.
"Our movement, our running, our cutting, everybody on the attack. I thought our defense was good. I loved the energy at the start of the game and I loved the way we responded late when they cut the lead."
Big win, all the way around, at a critical moment of the season. The Pistons aren't going away, it appears.