Luka Garza

Keith Langlois

Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 100-92 loss to the Miami Heat at Little Caesars Arena

FOURTH-QUARTER FAILURE – Minus Isaiah Stewart, the Pistons channeled his physical toughness and defensive aptitude in a game that more resembled the NBA of a generation ago – until the fourth quarter, when the Pistons followed one of their best 36-minute stretches of the season with one of their least impressive 12 minutes. The Pistons lost a 15-point lead against the Lakers on Sunday when they were outscored 37-17 in the final quarter; against Miami, it was a 33-16 fourth-quarter count. The Heat outscored the Pistons 27-6 to open the quarter to turn a nine-point deficit into a 12-point lead. The Pistons pulled within six with a minute left but got no closer. Stewart, serving the first of his two-game suspension in the aftermath of Sunday’s dustup with LeBron James and the Lakers, leaves a void for the Pistons, already shorthanded up front with the injury to Kelly Olynyk.  But against the NBA’s No. 4 offense, the Pistons played one of their most complete defensive games of the season – for three quarters. Tyler Herro hit consecutive 3-pointers 18 seconds apart early in the fourth quarter to pull Miami within three points as the Heat outscored the Pistons 18-3 in the first four-plus minutes after being held to 67 points through three quarters. Herro carried Miami’s offense, scoring 11 of the 18 points to open the final quarter, and finished with 30. Offense was often a struggle, no surprise with the Pistons missing two starters – Stewart and Killian Hayes, sitting for at least two games as he recovers from a recurring thumb injury – plus Olynyk, a lynchpin of their second unit. Over the first 12 possessions of the fourth quarter, the Pistons had one basket, two free throws – one on a technical foul – and four turnovers. Jerami Grant led the Pistons with 21 points. The Pistons led virtually all of the first half and by as much as 10 points, holding the Heat to just 3 of 11 from the 3-point arc. They led by 12 in the third quarter. The longest home stand concluded with the Pistons going 1-4 and now starts the season’s longest road trip, five games over nine days that opens Wednesday in Milwaukee and stops next for two games in Los Angeles on the holiday weekend.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS – With two 20-year-old starters missing due to injury (Killian Hayes) or suspension (Isaiah Stewart), the door opened for two other young Pistons, Luka Garza and Saben Lee. Garza drew his first career start – he also took the microphone before player introductions to welcome fans and wish them happy holidays – and played 17 minutes while dodging foul trouble, picking up five. Garza had a terrific stretch in the second quarter when he scored seven straight Pistons points in less than a minute, grabbed contested rebounds at each end and drew a charge on Kyle Lowry. The Pistons would still love to get Garza more time in the G League to become more comfortable with the defensive demands of an NBA big man, but that might have to wait until Kelly Olynyk can return from injury. He finished with seven points, three rebounds and two assists. Lee, who has had two 40-point games in the G League for the Motor City Cruise, got minutes as the lead ballhandler with the second unit with both Cory Joseph and Cade Cunningham out of the game. He didn’t take a shot in seven minutes.

BEY WATCH – Things are trending in the right direction for Saddiq Bey after slumping with his 3-point shooting, the trend across the league as all 30 teams came into Tuesday’s play shooting worse from the arc than last year. Though Bey came into Tuesday’s game at 30.3 percent from the 3-point line this season after hitting 38 percent as a rookie, he’s begun to heat up and start taking triples at a clip more in line with his rookie numbers. Bey got heated up quickly on Tuesday, hitting 3 of 5 from the arc in the game’s first eight minutes, though he missed his last five and finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Over the previous five games, Bey had hit 13 of 33 triples, or 39 percent. He’d taken 48 percent of his shots from the arc, well below the 67 percent of his rookie season but above the rate so far this season.

another-flat-finish-as-pistons-fall-to-heat

Another flat finish as Pistons fall to Heat

The Pistons didn’t have to travel far to scout their first pick of the NBA draft’s second round, Michigan’s Isaiah Livers. Livers, a Kalamazoo native and Michigan’s 2017 Mr. Basketball, was taken with the 42nd overall pick – the first of three second-round picks the Pistons carried into the draft.

They stayed in the Big Ten for their pick at 52, as well, grabbing national Player of the Year Luka Garza, and finished their night by taking 7-footer Balsa Koprivica, a Serbian native who spent the past two seasons at Florida State.

Livers, 23, spent four seasons at Michigan, starting 69 of 119 career games, and averaged 13.1 points and 6.0 rebounds a game in his senior season, one ended after 23 games by a foot injury that cost him the opportunity to compete with the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament. Livers is an outstanding shooter who hit 43.1 percent from the 3-point arc and 87 percent from the 3-point line.

He’ll likely be a candidate to sign a two-way contract – that’s what Saben Lee, the 38th pick in the 2020 draft, signed for his rookie season with the Pistons – and play much of the 2021-22 season with the Motor City Cruise, who debut as the Pistons G League affiliate this fall in a new arena on the campus of Wayne State University. Garza and Koprivica could also be candidates for that type of deal, though each NBA team is limited to two two-way contracts.

The man who recruited Livers to Michigan out of Kalamazoo Central High, John Beilein, now serves as the Pistons senior adviser for player development. Beilein is renowned for his ability as a shooting instructor and all-around offensive innovator and helped Livers develop into a career 41 percent 3-point shooter at Michigan who projects as a weapon in catch-and-shoot situations and was especially deadly from the corners, a staple of Dwane Casey’s offense.

Garza, like Livers, was a four-year college player who put up eye-popping numbers for the Hawkeyes. Garza, 22, averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds as a junior and 24.1 points and 8.7 rebounds as an Iowa senior, starting 118 of 127 games over his career. Garza swept the national player of the year awards – Wooden, Naismith, NABC, Associated Press, The Sporting News.

Koprivica, 21, came to the United States in 2015 to play high school basketball in Florida, eventually winding up at Montverde Academy – where Cunningham also played. At Florida State last season, he averaged 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 20 minutes a game.

The Pistons went into the draft holding picks 37, 42 and 52 but before the draft’s 8 p.m. start and their selection of Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 pick, they executed a trade – which can’t become official until after the NBA moratorium lifts on August 6 – that saw them ship 37 to Charlotte in exchange for the 57th pick.

Livers, 6-foot-7¼,  gives the Pistons another young wing player with great size to go with Cunningham, Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey, Josh Jackson and Hamidou Diallo. The Pistons won’t have more than a few roster spots available for rookies, barring significant trade movement, after accounting for the relatively few free-agent departures expected and the need to add veteran free agents to fill needs at point guard and among their corps of big men.

But if they create the space to accommodate their three second-round rookies, they’ll be making way for players with plenty of experience under their belts.

Luka Garza

Another flat finish as Pistons fall to Heat

Big Ten stars Livers, Garza highlight Pistons second-round picks