The January clubbing of Golden State on the night the Pistons honored Ben Wallace was more exhilarating. The nail-biter at Chicago in early April to put a little distance between them and their closest playoff competitor was more dramatic. Last week’s win over Washington to clinch the franchise’s first playoff berth in seven years was more celebratory. But if you want to narrow the scope to most critical win of the season, go back to Feb. 22 when the Pistons came back from Cleveland with a 96-88 win.
The Pistons were playing one day after losing their fifth straight game, a season high, to go a season-worst two games under .500. Anthony Davis had just hung 59 points on them at The Palace, Anthony Tolliver had just been lost to a knee injury, Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova had been dealt away days earlier, and the Pistons boarded Roundball One the night of Feb. 21 a little dazed and disoriented and, perhaps, doubtful.
“We’d lost five in a row and it was the toughest time of the year right there,” Stan Van Gundy said after Friday’s practice in preparation for Sunday’s Game 1 of the first-round series with the top-seeded Cavaliers.
“We were down two games under .500 and you’re going in to play the number one team on the road. It’s not exactly looking like brighter days. And then to come out of there with one of the best wins, certainly, of the year, I think that game sort of got us going again and propelled us to where we are now. Got us some confidence.”
It was also the first game as a starter for Tobias Harris, the return for the Jennings-Ilyasova package from Orlando, and the 96-88 win in a game the Pistons didn’t quite dominate but one they controlled for most of the night gave them a glimpse of their possibilities.
So, yeah, biggest win of the year.
“I think so,” Andre Drummond agreed. “I think coming back from a loss like that and to beat the number one team in the East like that really shows this team’s fight.”
Van Gundy signed off on the Harris deal that general manager Jeff Bower negotiated with great exuberance. Harris was a player the Pistons had on their very short list of free agent small forwards – their major roster hole at the time – to pursue last July. But because Harris was restricted – meaning next to unattainable – the Pistons didn’t hesitate to finalize the first attractive alternative, the trade with Phoenix for Marcus Morris.
But it wasn’t a move he thought would pay immediate dividends, necessarily. In fact, he thought that the short-term ramifications could imperil their playoff drive, just as they took a step back last winter – a 10-game losing streak shortly ensued – after trading for Reggie Jackson.
But because both Harris and Morris possess hybrid skills needed to play either forward spot, adding Morris hadn’t closed off the possibility of adding Harris. So when Orlando – aware the Pistons had prior interest in Harris – circled back with an eye on two players Magic coach Scott Skiles had links to from their Milwaukee days, Jennings and Ilyasova, it didn’t take a lot of hand-wringing from the Pistons to get the deal done.
And that versatility that Harris and Morris possess now comes into play against Cleveland. The Cavaliers have two of the finest playmakers on the planet in LeBron James and Kyrie Irving and they’ll do everything in their power to create mismatches for them.
But with Morris and Harris’ ability to move their feet, coupled with the emerging perimeter defensive wizardry of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Pistons can simplify the process of defending Cleveland pick-and-roll plays by nearly indiscriminate switching.
Morris will get the lion’s share of work on James and Caldwell-Pope on Irving, but they’ll all find themselves one on one with all of Cleveland’s perimeter players at various points of the series. Throw rookie Stanley Johnson into the mix, as well, a player Van Gundy said, “can probably guard one through four, which makes him a very valuable and unique guy.”
Their win that winter night on Lake Erie’s shore gave hints as to how the Pistons could still find a path to the playoffs and even how they’d be able to compete with Cleveland despite all its firepower. Jackson won’t call it the biggest win of the season – to get to the playoffs, to amass 44 wins, you need a lot of big ones – but he acknowledges that it was one they needed.
“We had a tough stretch. We found a way to bounce back against a good team – ironically, against the team we’re playing now. But I think we had a lot of defining moments to the season.”
But only one that snapped a five-game losing streak. Only one when they were in danger of slipping to three games under .500. And, as it turns out, only one that included the newly united starting five at the site of what would turn out to be your first-round playoff opponent.
“The fact that you’ve beaten them certainly helps in terms of confidence that you think you can compete,” Van Gundy said. “At the same time, we’re smart enough to know the playoffs are a whole different deal in terms of what everybody’s focus and intensity will be.
“We hadn’t been playing very well,” Van Gundy said of the run-up to that season-turning February win, “and then we played very well that night. It was a nice step up.”
A step up to a stage – the playoffs – the Pistons expect to become an annual occurrence.