FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Friday night’s 106-101 loss to the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center
OFFENSE STALLS – It figures that teams with matching 21-26 records would take it to the wire. The Pistons battled back from a 13-point deficit to tie in the third quarter and it was a one-possession game for much of the fourth quarter, but their offense bogged down in the last eight minutes after a Luke Kennard triple tied the game at 92. They scored just five points over the next seven minutes, falling behind 104-97, and only nine in the game’s final eight minutes. The Pistons appeared to take their first lead on a Blake Griffin basket with 4:16 to play, but at the next dead ball – with Dallas now apparently leading by three on a Maxi Kleber triple – an Andre Drummond basket midway through the quarter was taken away when it was ruled he didn’t beat the shot clock. Griffin finished with 35 points, seven rebounds and four assists. A strong start to the third quarter enabled the Pistons to wipe out an eight-point halftime deficit in less than five minutes. The Pistons tied the game a few times late in the third quarter, settling for a three-point deficit headed to the fourth quarter. Then Casey’s bench, badly outplayed to start the second quarter, limited the Mavs to one basket in six possessions and tied the game on a Luke Kennard triple with eight minutes left. The Pistons were sharp at both ends in building a five-point lead after a quarter, but the Mavericks scored 20 points in the first five minutes of the second quarter against Detroit’s bench to turn their five-point deficit into a nine-point lead. The Mavs took their lead to 13 before Griffin scored 15 consecutive points late in the second quarter to close the gap to eight at halftime.
BACK IN THE SADDLE – After missing the last three games while passing through concussion protocol – the longest continuous absence of his career other than the 20 games he missed as a rookie with a stress fracture of the lower back – Andre Drummond returned, started and played 38 minutes. He finished with 23 points and15 rebounds. Drummond came into the game still leading the NBA in rebounding at 14.9 a game, but during his absence he ceded the total rebound lead to DeAndre Jordan of Dallas. Jordan came into the game with 657 rebounds to 654 for Drummond. Jordan was limited to 11 first-half minutes by foul trouble as both he and Drummond finished with five first-half rebounds. Drummond ended the night leading Jordan by a rebound after outboarding him 15-11.
FOR REAL – The Pistons got their first look at Luka Doncic, the runaway favorite for NBA Rookie of the Year. They’d take no issue with that result. Doncic came into the game averaging 19.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 32 minutes while starting every game and nearly matched that production in the first half. He finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Bruce Brown opened the game on him and did a credible job over the first eight minutes. But Doncic hit consecutive 3-pointers to open the second quarter, which began with Langston Galloway guarding him, to get Dallas off and running in building a double-digits lead. Stanley Johnson and Khyri Thomas also took turns guarding him in the first half. When Dwane Casey went with Luke Kennard instead of Galloway to replace Brown in the third quarter, Reggie Bullock moved over to guard Doncic. Johnson was on him down the stretch and gave Doncic the most trouble, staying on his feet against Doncic’s head fakes and forcing him into a few air balls. Doncic finished second in fan voting – LeBron James was first – among Western Conference players in All-Star balloting, sixth in media voting and eighth among players. Dwane Casey said it might have been a case of veterans needing to see more from the rookie, but didn’t hold back his praise for Doncic, a 19-year-old from Slovenia with vast professional experience in Europe and for his national team, which he led to the 2017 EuroBasket championship.