FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Thursday night’s 107-92 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Little Caesars Arena
A BIG WIN – Wayne Ellington stayed hot – and the Pistons knocked off the defending NBA champions in large part because of his continued torrid 3-point shooting. It only took the first half for Ellington to extend his franchise record of making at least four 3-pointers to eight straight games. He hit 4 of 5 in the first half, but it was his first triple of the second half that was the night’s biggest basket. It came with four minutes to play and gave the Pistons the first double-digit lead for either team all night, putting the Pistons ahead 98-87 as part of a 16-0 run. Ellington finished with 20 points, hitting 6 of 9 from the 3-poine line. Blake Griffin, back in the lineup after sitting out for management of his surgically repaired left knee, looked as energetic as he has all season – though is surely helps when his 3-point shot is falling. Shooting 32.5 percent from the arc for the season, Griffin hit 5 of 10 in a 23-point, six-assist outing. LeBron James was listed questionable for the Lakers with a sprained ankle, but he played 13 of the game’s first 15 minutes and scored 20 points – hitting 7 of 7 shots, four of them from the 3-point arc – before finally missing a shot. He scored only two more points after that, though, finishing 8 of 19. The Pistons, 0-3 in back to backs coming into the game, won after losing at Cleveland on Wednesday. It was the fifth game in the last seven nights for the Pistons.
GIFT OF GIVING – Jerami Grant began the night as one of only six NBA players averaging 24 points and 6 rebounds while making at least two 3-point shots a game. The others you might have heard about: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum. That … that’s a list. While much has been made about Grant more than doubling his scoring average year over year – 12.0 points per game last season, 24.4 this season – his progress as a playmaker is more recent and more obscured. Grant, who has scored more than 20 points in all but two games this season, has recently become more effective finding open teammates as he grows accustomed to having the ball in his hands more often. Grant has a career average of 1.1 assists per game and came into Thursday’s game averaging 2.8 for the season. But over the previous seven games, Grant had averaged 4.3. And he upped that against the Lakers, tying a career high with six assists.
UNIT TWEAK – Saddiq Bey went from starting at Cleveland on Wednesday when Blake Griffin sat to outside the rotation on Thursday against the Lakers. With his full complement of players available – everybody but rookie Killian Hayes was off the injury report – Dwane Casey used Josh Jackson and Svi Mykhailiuk at the wing positions with the second unit. But the Pistons didn’t get a lot of scoring punch from their bench unit, which has spent most of the season as the top-scoring second unit in the NBA, aside from Derrick Rose. Rose, who returned to the lineup in Cleveland on Wednesday after missing the previous two games, finished with 14 points. The rest of the bench scored 13. Jackson scored three points and was 1 of 5 from the field; Mykhailiuk missed his only shot and was scoreless in 12 minutes; Sekou Doumbouya was 1 of 5 for two points in 13 minutes. Rookie Isaiah Stewart gave the Pistons 21 solid minutes, most of them in the first half with Mason Plumlee in foul trouble, and finished with eight points and six rebounds.