NBA opening day. First game of the season. In Detroit. The whole world watching.
And the Pistons were getting blown out by the mighty Boston Celtics.
Maybe even embarrassed, as 36-year-old Paul George was having a game for the aged against the Pistons’ non-existent perimeter defense.
They were down 13 points at the half, then by 22 midway through the third quarter.
It wasn’t a question of how the Pistons were allowing themselves to get blown out in the opener, but by how many.
Then two things happened that led to the Pistons’ exhilarating 121-113 win before a sellout crowd of 20,178 at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The first thing that happened was they never forgot who they were. Before they became 60-win, playoff darlings last year,
they were sewer rats and punchlines who won 14 games three years ago, when they also lost 28 straight.
“Like we've seen the bottom,” center Jalen Duren said. “A lot of guys are new here, but we've seen the bottom, so we're not afraid of it. And, you know, we fight, man. That's the identity of our team. We've been a team. We’ve built everything we have so far off of being gritty, being dogs, and kind of just attacking everybody that comes in front of us.
“So I never said we were scared or like worried or anything. We knew that we had to pick it up and play our brand of basketball to get back in it and, you know, thankfully we did.”
The second thing that happened was Javonte Green.
He’s a journeyman’s journeyman. A role player who’s making just $3.9 million this season – a relative pittance in the NBA. Seriously, can someone start a GoFundMe already?
Green sat the entire first half and was the 11th and final Pistons player off the bench. When he finally checked in, with 7:26 left in the third quarter, he exploded like a box of TNT. The wing who has a seven-year average of 5.7 points and shoots 35.5% on 3s, finished with 19 points and was 5-for-8 on 3-pointers.
Green was the key cog that helped the Pistons claw back from their 72-50 deficit in the third quarter, then go on a 23-0 run in the fourth quarter that helped sealed the win.
For all that’s made of the Pistons’ vaunted young core – Duren, Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson – we really shouldn’t forget about someone like Green, a 32-year-old dependable player with sparkplug capability.
Or another not-so-sexy 32-year-old in sharpshooter Duncan Robinson, who had 21 points and was 5-for-9 on 3s.
Yes, the core paved the way. Cunningham and Duren each had 22 points, and Thompson was his usual elite defensive self on the way to 11 points and 11 rebounds. But lots of teams have stars. It’s the tenacity from the fringes that’s going to make the difference for the Pistons.
“Yeah, that's what makes us a team,” Duren said, “you know, having guys, having a deep team, guys who come in, make plays automatically, guys who know their role, guys who you know play their role to the best of their abilities.
“That's how we get wins like this, and that's how we become successful.”
The Pistons have been trying to distance themselves from last year’s 60-win season, saying that it’s postseason success that matters. And it does, especially after they earned the East’s top seed last year and didn’t make it out of the second round and barely made it out of the first round.
But let’s be real. If the Pistons had gotten blown out – at home – in front of a national [if not international] television audience against a similar-caliber contender, people would stop believing in them as quickly as they start doubting.
The fact they didn’t and still found a way to salvage a victory, and save face, with the help of a role player who doesn’t know where his own nickname, Woo, comes from, says a lot about who these Pistons and where they might be headed.
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Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jalen Duren’s answer was everything as Pistons rallied to beat Celtics
