The Detroit Pistons shared the ball and focused on feeding their big men inside in a 126-110 win over the overmatched Memphis Grizzlies. Jalen Duren led all scorers with 30 points on 12-of-15 shooting. Cade Cunningham didn’t even look like he broke a sweat in his 30 minutes of action. He scored 17 points on 11 shots and added 15 assists, eight rebounds, and three steals to his tally. If he wanted more, he could have gotten more of anything he wanted, but you could tell by early in the third quarter
that the game was well in hand for the Pistons.
Not that Detroit didn’t make fans sweat for a little bit. Memphis was hitting everything from deep early, and Detroit was hitting Memphis shooters, sending them to the free-throw line on 3-point attempts three times in the first 13 minutes of the game.
But hanging around in a game and actually being in the game are different things, and Detroit never really seemed threatened in this one. They simply had too much working in their favor against a team starting 6-foot-7, 230-pound Oliver-Maxence Prosper at center and 6-foot-5, 206-pound Cedric Coward at power forward. Mainly, Jalen Duren, but you can also add Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland, and even Javonte Green to that list. The Pistons were getting pretty much anything they wanted, and Memphis could do little to stop them.
The Pistons dominated the painted area, with a 74-36 advantage. They capitalized on turnovers, with a 24-8 advantage on the fastbreak. They had a plus-14 rebound advantage and had 36 assists on 50 made field goals.
By controlling the paint, Detroit was also able to create space for shooters on the perimeter, as three to four defenders would regularly collapse on Duren when he would get the ball. Duncan Robinson hit two threes, Kevin Heurter hit two early threes, and Marcus Sasser was 4-of-8 on the night, almost all of them corner threes off of assists from kickouts.
It was a ho-hum game, but it was yet another opportunity for Detroit to wash the stink of their recent struggles off of themselves. It was also Detroit’s ninth win on the second night of a back-to-back. Their 9-2 record in that department leads the NBA.
They now have a three-game road trip, including what could be a tough game against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. After that, they play the Washington Wizards in consecutive games on Tuesday and Thursday. After another back-to-back wraps up Friday against the Golden State Warriors, they face the final tough stretch of their regular season schedule.
They host the Lakers, Hawks, Pelicans, then hit the road against the Wolves and Thunder, then come back home for the Raptors and Wolves again. Bear in mind, these games against Minnesota could also have drastic NBA Draft implications, as the Pistons hold swap rights with the Wolves.
If the Pistons manage to win around eight of those 11 games, they will be staring at 55 wins with five games remaining. That would already put them at the third-most wins for a Pistons team since the 1989-90 title season. Only one team has eclipsed 60 wins — the 2007-08 team that went 64-18 in the first year under Flip Saunders.
The sprint to the finish starts now.
