The Detroit Pistons (34-37) and their playoff hopes were dealt a heavy blow tonight, losing to the Brooklyn Nets (14-56) on a buzzer beater shot from Brook Lopez.
Detroit had rallied back from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to tie the game with 2.6 seconds to go thanks to a Tobias Harris putback layup.
Then moments later, Lopez – who scored a game-high 29 points on 13-24 shooting tonight – took every hope Pistons fans had for the game to go to overtime and smashed them into a billion pieces:
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/844366099319681025
After scoring 31 points in the first quarter, Detroit struggled offensively for the following two frames. They recorded just 34 points in the second and third quarters combined.
The Pistons eventually rallied their way back into the game on a 13-5 run with less than five minutes to go in large part because of point guard Ish Smith, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Then, the Lopez shot happened.
This is the Pistons’ second loss of the year to the Nets, the worst team record-wise in the NBA.
With the Miami Heat beating the Phoenix Suns 112-97 tonight, Detroit has fallen back to ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
While the loss obviously does not eliminate the Pistons from playoff contention, it does put a lot more pressure on them to win during their final 11 games.