For a long time, the New Orleans Pelicans dominated the events in Detroit. But the pistons, led by the strong Blake Griffin, do not give in. In the end, it’s not enough to make a comeback.
It wasn’t so long ago that Detroit celebrated their fifth successive win in a surprise win over the Warriors – but then there were three consecutive failures and the start to the game against New Orleans was anything but promising from Piston’s point of view.
The hosts started the game extremely cold, especially from downtown there wasn’t much to do at the beginning. In the first quarter, Detroit scored only 1 of 11 from a distance, while on the other side, Jrue Holiday scored 13 early points.
But also the Pels went with a laughing and a crying eye from the first part of the game. In the middle of the passage Blake Griffin hit the basket with his knee against Anthony Davis’ hip during a drive to the basket. The brow then limped off the parquet floor and shortly afterwards into the cabin.
In his absence things didn’t go as well for the Pels as they did at the beginning. The bench of pistons around the strong Langston Galloway and Zaza Pachulia brought the hosts back within striking distance after Detroit had fallen 10 points behind. At the halftime break it was only 50:56 from Pistons point of view.
The third quarter drew a very similar picture. The Pelicans came out of the cabin much better – Davis also came back – and gained a 16-point lead. It didn’t last too long, though, as both Griffin and Andre Drummond turned it up.
Galloway also scattered the one or other trio before Jon Leuer brought the pistons up to 91:93 with two layups at the beginning of the final section. But the pistons couldn’t make the game any tighter.
Led by Holiday and Julius Randle, New Orleans started a 7-1 run. The pistons were never beaten, but either they didn’t want to drop their own important throws or they couldn’t stop the pelicans in the decisive situations.
Even as Detroit approached 5 points two minutes from time, Drummond left a good opportunity on one side, while Nikola Mirotic sunk a cold jumper to 111-104 for NOP at the other end of the court. The decision.
Mirotic finished the game with 12 points and 7 rebounds, but the best man in the Pels was Holiday. The Point Guard scored 37 points (plus 5 rebounds, 5 assists, but also 9 turnovers), after his strong start Holiday didn’t really cool down anymore. Randle contributed 28 points (11/19 FG), while Davis was noticeably more aggressive after his return to the floor (6 points, 2/7 FG, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks).
On the other hand, Griffin defended himself most successfully against the imminent defeat with 35 points. He pocketed 13 out of 25 out of the field and 4 out of 9 threes. When Griffin missed, Drummond was there with 11 offensive rebounds (total 23 points, 19 rebounds). Galloway also scored 24 points, but they could not prevent the fourth consecutive bankruptcy.