Three quick observations from Sunday night’s 124-121 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Little Caesars Arena
DURANT’S DELUGE – The Pistons stewed for 45 hours after letting an eight-point halftime lead evaporate in three horrific minutes to start Friday’s second half of what became a loss to Sacramento. Against the NBA’s hottest team, they played an even more impressive first half on Sunday and led by 17. But the third quarter got them again – and this time it was more about Kevin Durant’s individual brilliance than a Pistons malaise. Durant scored 13 first-half points but hit the Pistons with a 26-point deluge in the third quarter. The Pistons went from a 19-point lead to a seven-point deficit, but they cut it to a point on a Bojan Bogdanovic triple off a Killian Hayes steal and assist with 39 seconds to play before Kyrie Irving hit two of three free throws 11 seconds later. An Alec Burks layup with 11 seconds to play was offset by two Durant free throws. Bogdanovic’s attempt at a tying triple at the buzzer was well short. Durant hit 8 of 10 shots and 7 of 7 free throws in the third quarter and in the final 50 seconds, he went 3 of 3 from the 3-point line. Brooklyn went 0 of 4 from three in the first quarter, then hit 12 of its next 17 triples. They finished 15 of 29 while the Pistons hit just 8 of 30. The Nets shot 71.4 percent in the third quarter and were a perfect 6 of 6 from the 3-point line – two from Kyrie Irving and one from Edmund Sumner in addition to Durant’s last-minute barrage. The Nets have won 10 of their last 11 games and they’ve done it with an offense that came in No. 4 in the NBA over the past month, sure to go up after Sunday’s breathtaking second half.
MAN TO MAN – There is never an ideal matchup for Nets star Kevin Durant, so the job fell to Bojan Bogdanovic. The Pistons seemed determined to make Durant work at the defensive end by giving him a steady diet of Bogdanovic-designed plays in the early going and he was at the heart of the hot start that saw the Pistons lead by as many as 15 points in the first quarter when Bogdanovic scored 11 of his 26 points. When Bogdanovic sat and was replaced by Alec Burks, Burks hit a three on the second possession with Durant guarding him. Give Durant credit for carrying the Nets and doing it while playing heavy minutes. He played 30 of 36 minutes through three quarters and stayed on the floor to start the fourth, too. After sitting our six minutes, he returned with five minutes to play and the Pistons trailing by six points. Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox also spent time guarding Durant. Killian Hayes was the primary defender on Kyrie Irving. Durant and Irving combined for 81 points, Durant 43 and Irving 38. Bey and Marvin Bagley III scored 10 points and hit 4 of 5 shots apiece in the first half as the Pistons built their 17-point halftime lead. The bench finished with 47 combined points.
BOARD MAN – Jalen Duren will have a lot of years to dent the Pistons and NBA record books, but he’s already in pretty good company. He, Dwight Howard and Moses Malone are the only teenagers who’ve strung together at least five consecutive games with a dozen or more rebounds. Duren failed in his attempt to stretch his streak to six straight games with a dozen or more rebounds, coming up one short. He finished with eight points, hitting 4 of 5 shots, 11 boards, two assists and three steals. Duren got it going early with six rebounds in nine first-quarter minutes and picked up another after playing the final four minutes of the second quarter. His opportunities were more limited in the third quarter when Brooklyn didn’t leave many chances by coming out hot. So Duren was still at eight rebounds when he checked back in with 7:40 to play. He grabbed three more in a hurry but couldn’t get to 12. The Pistons had a 23-14 rebounding edge at halftime, but Brooklyn closed the gap in the second half thanks mostly to the Nets heating up and the Pistons giving Brooklyn a lot more rebound chances when they cooled off after shooting 58.7 percent in the first half. The Pistons finished with a 41-35 rebounding edge. Malone had streaks of five, six and 10 such games in 1974 and ’75. Howard had five such games in November 2005.