Drummond is magnificent, Curry struggles, Warriors beat Pistons anyway

64. Final. 105. 41. 98

REGGIE JACKSON. B+. Reggie Jackson really bounced back from the turd he dropped in Los Angeles the previous night. 14 points, 9 assists, 4 turnovers, 7-15 shooting, and no free throws sounds like just a mediocre game; but Jackson flexed his true strength in locking down Steph Curry, who easily deserves to be the frontrunner for MVP thus far. Jackson won that head-to-head matchup, a nearly impossible task, and the only reason he didn’t get an A is because it wasn’t all on him. Curry was having an off night and missing shots he normally makes. But don’t discount how much of this was Reggie.. PG. Pistons

Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. D+. I certainly don’t expect Caldwell-Pope to win the head-to-head with Klay Thompson, but he got flat out embarrassed. While Klay got 27 points on just 19 attempts, Kentavious bogged down Detroit with 13 points on 15 attempts. The defensive performances at shooting guard were the biggest reasons the Pistons fell short of a massive upset.. SG

Pistons. CARON BUTLER. D+. Butler got the start over Prince in this one. But, just like in their last game, the two players were equally imcompetent.. SF

Greg Monroe didn’t shoot all that well, but he got to the line six times, hit them all, and–most importantly–played very good defense against a truly rangy power forward in Draymond Green. He was the only Piston to play more than seven minutes and have a positive plus-minus.. PF. Pistons. GREG MONROE. B

ANDRE DRUMMOND. A+. Drummond tore the Warriors a new one. Make that 17 new ones. That’s how many offensive rebounds Andre pulled down in just 34 minutes. It had been more than 17 years since anyone had grabbed so many of his team’s misses. The last player to do so was Jayson Williams in the Nets’ opening game of the 1997-98 season–not exactly a phenomenal player, but a top-notch rebounder in his lone all-star season. Drummonds 27 boards overall also match DeAndre Jordan for the league high this season.. C. Pistons

C-. When the Pistons drafted Dinwiddie, I thought he had the tools to be a good defensive point guard, but that it would take him a while to get there if he ever did. And he’s no great shakes on that end, but Spencer continued his very competent defensive play against Livingston int his one. Unfortunately, his shooting continues to be really bad and his ball handling wasn’t up to his own standards in this one.. PG. Pistons. SPENCER DINWIDDIE

Meeks hit three of four shots, so that’s nice. But he got burned by both Iguodala and Barbosa. To justify being on the court in this game where he was worthless on defense and the whole Detroit team was struggling to put the ball in the hole at a decent rate, Meeks really needed to be taking (and hitting) more shots.. SG. Pistons. JODIE MEEKS. C-

D+. It’s hard to put it all on him, but Tayshaun Prince was on the floor pretty much whenever the Warriors made a run and never when the Pistons did. But he had a decent enough game statistically. So there’s that,if anyone cares.. SF. Pistons. TAYSHAUN PRINCE

Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER. C+. Tolliver played just seven minutes. He played just fine in that time, but it’s not much to go on. Is he really losing his rotation spot to Cartier Martin?. PF

C-. Cartier Martin failed to make an impact in 16 minutes.. SF. Pistons. CARTIER MARTIN

C. The Pistons played the Warriors a lot tighter than anyone had good reason to expect. But that wasn’t mostly coaching. That was Drummond embarrassing every Warrior who was supposed to grab a defensive rebound.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY