Morris, Pistons beat Durant-less Thunder

82. 149. Final. 88. 64

C-. Making four free throws to ice the game was good. The rest was not. Oklahoma City kept Jackson out of the paint and limited him to perimeter jumpers. He can hit those shots, but he’s definitely a rhythm shooter who needs to work into a groove. Tonight that wasn’t the case, but his driving dunk to put the Pistons up two possessions late was massive.. PG. Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON

C+. Russell Westbrook was bad (8-of-28 shooting) tonight and a big part of that was Caldwell-Pope’s defense. You kind of expect a poor offensive game on nights where Caldwell-Pope is tasked with a defensive assignment like Westbrook. You know he’s exerting 85 percent of his energy on that end, which means the jumper will be flat and the drives lazy. That was the case tonight, but his defense was big as Westbrook accounted for 33 percent of the Thunder’s attempts.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE

Harris didn’t shoot particularly well (6-of-14) but he did take advantage of  mismatches. The versatility he shows offensively is impressive. He’s able to post up smaller defenders like he did Kyle Singler or take a bigger one like Steven Adams off the dribble. Not having to deal with Durant or Ibaka surely helped.. SF. Pistons. TOBIAS HARRIS. B

A-. Morris continues to be the Pistons most valuable player as they attempt to lock up a playoff berth. His offense isn’t terribly intuitive, but it sure is effective. He baptized rookie Josh Huestis in the third and continues to shoot well. He’s just been so big for this team as the games have gotten more important.. SF. Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS

C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND. B+. It was a quiet night offensively for Drummond, but he did his job on the boards. His defense wasn’t bad either, but he was tasked with rebounding against the NBA’s best total rebounding team. Enes Kanter is a worthy adversary on the boards and offensively, but Drummond fared pretty well against him. He should have gotten back into the game earlier into the fourth quarter, but we’ll get to that.

C. Baynes was not at his best tonight. The Thunder went huge late and the combination of Adams and Kanter was too much for him both on the boards and on the interior offensively. But his final defensive stand — while it looked like it hurt — was huge in stopping Randy Foye’s layup.. C. Pistons. ARON BAYNES

PG. Pistons. STEVE BLAKE. D. Couldn’t make shots and really couldn’t create much against an OKC defense that clogged up the paint. It wasn’t a fun evening for the old man.

DARRUN HILLIARD II. D. He played a little and missed a driving layup. He missed it because it was a terrible, contested shot.. SG. Pistons

D+. Billy Donovan, without his best player, definitely got the better of Van Gundy tonight. I thought the Thunder were dead in the water after the third quarter but, as he has at times this season, Van Gundy trusted his bench a little too  much. They were tasked  with holding on to a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter. On a night where, really, none of them had it going, Oklahoma City stormed back. Donovan went to a two-center lineup and Van Gundy was slow to counter. The result was a near-catastrophic meltdown. I don’t get how you watch Kanter play volleyball on the backboards and not throw the best rebounder in the NBA out there. Nor do I see how, with that bench unit already having coughed up a lead to end the half, you keep rolling with it once the lead shrinks below 10. But, despite a bad night from the coach, the Pistons won again. Chicago beat Indiana, which moves the Pistons into the seventh spot in the East. All Detroit wins are good, but the Pacers falling keeps the Bulls’ playoff hopes on life support.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY