At 11:23 of the third quarter, Blake Griffin scored late in the shot clock on the first Pistons possession of the third quarter. Seven seconds later, Dwane Casey called a timeout. Yeah, that’s odd on the face of it. But seven seconds after a made Pistons basket, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell scored … a layup.
That’s borderline infuriating.
“It was the same message from the pregame scout,” Mason Plumlee said of Casey’s exhortation during the timeout huddle. “It was the same message at halftime. He calls that timeout and I think we listened maybe the third or fourth time. He just said get back on defense. When we did that, we gave ourselves a chance tonight.”
Casey – and, really, everyone from general manager Troy Weaver on down in the organizational flow chart – is gauging the Pistons less by wins and losses and more by growth and responses to adversity.
So for the Pistons to go from 28 down to having a chance with a wide-open Delon Wright 3-pointer to pull within a point with 93 seconds to go was not insignificant, not just another loss.
“Compete – that’s all we have to hang our hat on. Compete, fight, scratch,” Casey said after the 117-105 loss, Utah getting consecutive triples from Bojan Bogdanovic after Wright’s miss to inflate the final margin. “Compete together, stay together, don’t give in to adversity. Don’t let go of the rope. I just felt they were and I let the guys know. I thought they responded. Put ourselves in position. Delon had a wide-open three.”
Jerami Grant scored 20 of his 27 in the second half. Mason Plumlee battled his way to 17 points and 14 rebounds. Josh Jackson came off the bench at full throttle, finishing with 22 points and eight assists and earned all of his 30 minutes and the right to finish the game on a night Casey’s second unit battled hard.
“I thought the young guys came in and played their hearts out, played to exhaustion,” Casey said. “Josh and Saddiq (Bey) came in and played their hearts out. Rodney McGruder played his heart out at a position he hasn’t played a lot. I really respect those guys. The entire group after that timeout responded.”
McGruder was enlisted as the emergency second unit point guard when Derrick Rose was bothered in pregame warmups with an upset stomach. The Pistons had already made rookie Saben Lee inactive as they often do when they don’t anticipate needing him, a move meant to preserve Lee’s time as he’s limited to 50 games by virtue of his status as a two-way contract player.
McGruder was playing in just his fifth game of the season, but he’s been lauded by Weaver and Casey for being a phenomenal teammate and showing the many Pistons young players how to carry themselves in uncertain roles. He gave the Pistons five points, three assists and two rebounds while committing a single turnover in 16 minutes at an unfamiliar position.
And the Pistons knew they were getting a buzzsaw in the Jazz, a team riled by having an 11-game win streak snapped unceremoniously in a Sunday loss to division rival Denver. Utah sizzled early. No. 1 in the NBA in 3-point attempts and No. 3 in 3-point percentage, Utah hit 10 of 22 from the arc in the first half alone and held a 23-point lead. It was still 17 after three quarters.
But the Pistons – who had lost only three games by more than 10 points coming into the game despite their 5-15 record – kept coming.
“I hope we can play like that for a full game, for four quarters,” Plumlee said. “It’s nothing spectacular. I just think it’s the fundamentals of getting back on defense, competing, playing for the next guy. It’s not super complicated.”
Casey understands how difficult it is to extend bursts of brilliant basketball where effort and focus is married to a full 48 minutes, but doing it more consistently is a guidepost for the season. He saw things worth bookmarking in Tuesday’s second half.
“In this league, on the dog nights, 75, 80 percent of the game is effort, focus, togetherness, playing with a pure heart,” he said. “All those things are important. Good things are going to come from all of this. I know it hurts right now. It’s ugly. It feels bad, but especially in the second half, a lot of positives against one of the top teams in the league.”
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'Good things are going to come from all of this' – Pistons nearly climb out of big hole at Utah | Detroit Pistons - Pistons.com
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