FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Saturday night’s 120-100 win over the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena
ROSE RETURNS – The Pistons got off to a good start for a change and that helped. They got off to an even better start to the third quarter and that was decisive. The Pistons hit 8 of 12 from three in the third quarter and got 11 points from Jerami Grant, 10 from Blake Griffin and nine from Derrick Rose – back in the lineup after missing the past two games with left knee soreness – in the quarter. The Pistons opened the quarter with an 11-2 run to erase a four-point halftime deficit and then spurted 16-2 late in the quarter to take a 17-point lead. Grant scored 24 points to lead the Pistons, Rose added 23 and Griffin finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Miami had played its last two games with the minimum required players, eight, and whether the Heat would have enough available players was in doubt even earlier in the day as the NBA official injury report had eight Miami players listed as questionable in addition to Jimmy Butler, Meyers Leonard and Avery Bradley all listed as out. But all of the questionable players except for Tyler Herro were able to play for Miami. The Pistons, outscored by 56 points in their last five first quarters, led 29-23 after a quarter. But they shot just 4 of 20 from the 3-point arc in the first half and fell behind 56-52 at halftime despite Miami’s 13 first-half turnovers. The Heat finished with 23 turnovers.
GREAT GRANT – Jerami Grant entered Saturday’s game as the first Pistons player since Jerry Stackhouse in 2001-02 to lead them in scoring in 10 straight games, but when he wasn’t denting the scoresheet as a scorer at Miami he was putting his imprint on the game in other ways. In the first half, when Grant scored just six points, he blocked two Miami dunk attempts and stuffed a 3-point attempt by sharpshooter Duncan Robinson. He also found Mason Plumlee for a lob dunk off of a nice dribble move and made a sharp pass to Delon Wright for a 3-pointer. Grant got going in the third quarter, hitting two 3-pointers and adding a fast-break layup in the first two minutes to get the Pistons off and running in a 38-point quarter. Grant’s 24 points – his streak of 11 straight games with 20-plus points is one behind Portland’s C.J. McCollum for the NBA’s longest-active streak – were important but his all-around game was even more impressive: nine rebounds, a season-high six assists, a season-high four blocked shots, two steals and zero turnovers.
SEKOU & SVI – Dwane Casey said after Sekou Doumbouya didn’t play in Wednesday’s loss to Milwaukee that he had to find ways to get the second-year forward some playing time. He did that at Miami, sending Doumbouya into the game for Blake Griffin and letting him play all backup minutes at power forward instead of his previous pattern of moving Jerami Grant to Griffin’s spot when Griffin sat and using rookie Saddiq Bey at Grant’s small forward spot. Doumbouya finished with six points and three rebounds. The odd man out of the rotation became Svi Mykhailiuk, coming off of a season-high 18 points against Milwaukee. With Wayne Ellington in the starting lineup and Josh Jackson back after missing time with a sprained ankle, Mykhailiuk didn’t play until the last two minutes and hit a triple on his first touch. Casey also winnowed down his center rotation. Jahlil Okafor didn’t play. Rookie Isaiah Stewart gave the Pistons a strong outing, finishing with his first career double-double – 10 points and 10 rebounds, six offensive – in 19 minutes.