FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 133-132 overtime win over the Philadelphia 76ers at Little Caesars Arena
INSTANT CLASSIC – Blake Griffin’s ninth career 40-point game was destined to end in crushing disappointment for the Pistons. So he turned it into his first career 50-point game and won it, instead. Philadelphia appeared to seal the win when J.J. Redick’s four-point play with 5.6 seconds left put the 76ers ahead 130-128. But Griffin made the right read when Philadelphia took away the 3-point shot, drove to the basket for a tying layup and made the free throw with 1.8 seconds left. Griffin’s previous career best was 47, which came in 2011 against Indiana. Griffin opened overtime with a triple on Detroit’s first possession to tie his career high, then grabbed a defensive rebound and assisted on an Ish Smith triple with 3:50 left to give the Pistons a six-point lead. The 76ers tried a little of everything against Griffin. Dario Saric started against him and absorbed the majority of the punishment, but a number of other 76ers – Robert Covington, Mike Muscala, Amir Johnson and even Joel Embiid, who finished the game against him – took a turn trying to slow him down or at least make him try to score in other ways. Griffin scored 22 points in the second quarter alone and had 28 at halftime despite missing his first six free throws. Griffin, a career 68 percent foul shooter, struggled in his first few seasons at the line but has made more than 70 percent in each of the last five seasons. But after missing his first six, he made his last five – including the crucial winning point. Griffin made 20 of 35 shots, including 5 of 10 from the 3-point line, grabbed 14 rebounds, handed out six assists and committed only one turnover.
DRUMMOND VS. EMBIID – It’s no secret that Andre Drummond gets keyed up to face Joel Embiid, but it seemed to backfire on him this time. Drummond was overeager to match Embiid’s scoring and wound up taking a number of ill-advised shots, many on off-balance drives. More than once he ended up sprawled on the court after high-degree-of-difficulty finishes with the result being a 76ers fast-break opportunity. His frustration bubbled over late in the third quarter after one such aggressive drive ended with him on the court with no call made until Drummond grumbled at the other end and was hit with a technical foul. When Drummond leaked out early after a missed 76ers shot early in the fourth quarter on a possession that wound up with Philadelphia retaining possession and Embiid slipping inside for a dunk Dwane Casey called a timeout just 1:19 into the fourth quarter. After another wild drive and air ball in the fourth quarter ended with Drummond on the court, he was taken out – he’d already played 30 minutes at that point, so maybe it was time for a break, regardless – for a quick break and came back with six minutes left and the Pistons trailing by four. The first technical came back to haunt Drummond when he was whistled for a second – for putting his hands to Embiid’s face, though replays of the play drew a strong negative reaction from the home crowd, who thought it was a flop – and ejected with 43 seconds to play. Drummond finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds, but committed five turnovers and shot 6 of 20.
FINISHING SCHOOL – You can’t win a game in the first quarter – not in the NBA, not very often, at least – but you can go a long way toward losing one. The Pistons trailed by just one point after the first quarter, but that takes on a new light when the 76ers were without Ben Simmons and got only three minutes from Joel Embiid before he sat with two fouls. The millstone for the Pistons was a familiar one – the inability to convert on scoring chances around the rim. The Pistons were just 7 of 19 on shots in the paint in the first quarter. Philadelphia got 10 fewer shots there but made just one fewer basket despite getting a combined three minutes out of its two best post players, Simmons and Embiid. The Pistons were 29th in shooting percentage at the rim last season and struggled on Saturday at Chicago, prompting Dwane Casey to break out football pads after practice in a drill designed for scorers to improve at finishing through contact. The Pistons finished 32 of 63 from inside the paint. And that’s with Blake Griffin doing most of his damage inside and Ish Smith have a strong second half in penetration and scoring on layups. The Pistons got 23 points from Reggie Jackson and 21 from Smith as those two shared the court at crunch time as they’ve done in all three games so far.