Pistons (kind of) in the playoffs: Khris Middleton, Amir Johnson star in losses

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little tired of this whole “six straight years without making the playoffs” thing. So this year, I’m going to live vicariously through some former Pistons. Except Josh Smith and Charlie Villanueva (the top two vote getters in our poll last week) … we’ll just pretend those guys don’t exist and stick to former Pistons people actually like.

Two former Pistons actually led their teams in scoring on the opening day of the 2015 NBA Playoffs on Saturday, albeit in losing causes.

Khris Middleton

The Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks both looked over-matched against the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls respectively. The Bucks are easy to explain because they actually are over-matched. There’s little chance that they’ll make their first round series all that interesting, especially if Derrick Rose continues to be as spry as he was in game one (and let’s hope he does because a spry Derrick Rose might be the most fun thing in the world). But the Bucks were competitive thanks to a feisty defense. Their problem is going to be scoring, but former Piston Khris Middleton looked pretty comfortable as a go-to offensive option, scoring 18 points. He’s obviously known as a jump shooter, but his off-the-bounce game has evolved some since his rookie year with the Pistons. Milwaukee got a combined 1-for-11 effort from veteran wings O.J. Mayo and Jared Dudley off the bench, so Middleton keeping his offensive output up is probably their only chance to make things interesting.

Amir Johnson

The Raps should be OK against Washington, but their offense in the second and third quarters Saturday … woof. Amir Johnson has made a name for himself as a great defender, rebounder, screen-setter and garbage man who scores super efficiently without the team running much for him. Johnson coming off the bench to score 18 points helped Toronto get things together enough to force overtime before losing. Also nice about Johnson — he frequently credits his Pistons experience for helping him become a key contributor for the Raps. Via Dave Zarum of SportsNet:

"Prior to last season’s first-round exit, his playoff experience amounted to just 11 games early in his career. He spent those glued to the Pistons’ bench, but he made the most of the opportunity, soaking in whatever he could from veterans like Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace. “I lead with my energy on the floor,” he says, an approach he learned from the champions who surrounded him in Detroit. “It gets everybody going, gets the guys running and hopefully picks up our level of play.”"

I’m just glad for Amir’s sake he wasn’t soaking up anything from Flip Saunders during those years. Probably the best decision he ever made.

Jonas Jerebko

The Celtics also lost, and Jerebko didn’t have standout scoring numbers like the two players highlighted above, but he did Jerebko-like things in 19 minutes that helped the Celtics prevent Cleveland from running away from things. Jerebko has seven points, three rebounds and a steal, and also gave Kevin Love a good, hard foul when Love was aggressively backing Jerebko down in the post. How Love found his way into the post and wasn’t in his customary position half-heartedly waving from the corner, I couldn’t tell ya. But I liked Jerebko not even screwing around with it and just bear-hugging him with one arm.

Also, future Piston Draymond Green had 15 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks for the Warriors in their win.