Pistons beat Trail Blazers after stunning fourth quarter comeback
64. 103. 34. Final. 120
What. A. Finish. The Pistons outscored Portland 41-11 in the fourth quarter. That alone is astounding. Then consider how Portland had been shooting the lights out all night, including 78 percent in the third quarter. Allen Crabbe (who?) couldn’t miss. C.J. McCollum was getting whatever he wanted. Meyers Leonard and Damian Lillard had been picking and popping the Pistons to death. Then the Pistons’ defense started stringing together stops, and Reggie Jackson flat out took over. Several Piston players were great tonight. I’ll go into more detail in the grades.
A career high 40 points, including 26 in the fourth quarter. He scored 16 straight at one point in the fourth. Jackson caught fire in a way that reminded me of NBA Jam when the ball was literally on fire and anything you put up went in. One of the best fourth quarter performances I have ever seen. Reggie had 5 rebounds and 5 assists as well. . PG. Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON. A+
A+. KCP finished with 16 points and 4 rebounds, but it was his defense that really earned him this grade. He came in and put a stop to the C.J. McCollum show that occurred in the third quarter, and gave Damian Lillard fits down the stretch.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE
D. Johnson’s shooting woes, and really all around woes, continued tonight. You can tell the game hasn’t slowed down for him yet. He’ll figure it out, but he scored just 3 points in 20 minutes tonight, and didn’t record any other statistics.. SF. Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON
SF. Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS. C. Marcus struggled shooting the ball tonight, connecting on just 5-18. He also picked up a silly technical foul at the end of the first half, and committed an ugly flagrant foul on Mason Plumlee in the fourth quarter.
A+. Andre was a monster from start to finish tonight. He finished with 29 points and 27 rebounds (his third 20-20 game of the season, by the way), and his post game looked as good as I’ve ever seen it. The way he is putting up these video game numbers on a regular basis is absurd. His block on Leonard late in the fourth wasn’t too shabby, either.. C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND
B. Baynes was solid tonight. 4 points, 5 rebounds and a block in 12 minutes.. C. Pistons. ARON BAYNES
B. The box score doesn’t reflect it, but Tolliver gave the Pistons some good minutes tonight. He was +21 which was mainly due to the ridiculous quarter that Reggie Jackson had, but he was good against the high ball screens in the fourth quarter which helped slow Portland down.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER
C. Ilyasova hit a couple of three pointers, but was quiet for most of the 26 minutes he played tonight. He only managed to pull down one rebound, which is not acceptable for a starting power forward.. PF. Pistons. ERSAN ILYASOVA
PG. Pistons. STEVE BLAKE. C-. This was a rough match-up for Blake. He simply couldn’t stay in front of Lillard or McCollum. He did have 3 assists, if you want to reach for a positive note.
I don’t know what Stan Van Gundy said in the huddle before the fourth quarter, but it worked.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY. A