Detroit Pistons: Recap of tonight’s 126-124 loss to Houston

The Detroit Pistons lost a close game to the Houston Rockets 126-124, despite a 37-point salvo by Blake Griffin. The rematch will be this Friday in Detroit.

Aside from Blake Griffin dunking the entire city of Houston six feet into the Earth, the story of the first half was simple: when Andre Drummond was in, the Detroit Pistons were winning.

When Drummond was out, they’d start losing. The Rockets clearly game planned around putting Andre in foul trouble. Drummond only played 10 minutes in the first half due to three fouls.

When he was off the court, you can give credit to the shooters on the team for keeping Detroit in the game. The Pistons shot well above their season average in the first half (40 percent), giving them some juice on offense once Drummond could no longer protect the paint.

It looked like Ish Smith landed on a foot and possibly twisted his ankle at the end of the first half. Luckily, he came back and was mostly himself the rest of the game.

In the fourth quarter, with the game seemingly out of reach, Griffin caught fire and nearly stole the game for the Pistons. He scored seventeen straight Pistons’ points, including five consecutive triples.

The only problem with Blake’s game tonight was his sloppy play. He accumulated nine turnovers throughout the evening.

Many of these came deep in the fourth, and it cost the Pistons. It’s certainly a piece of dark irony when the player who is responsible for you even being in the game is also your undoing, but that’s what happened tonight.

If Griffin can limit his turnovers, he immediately becomes the best distributor on the team. He probably already is.

It was a tough loss, but I came out of this game tonight feeling pretty good about the Pistons.

Yeah, they clearly got outgunned tonight, but they kept fighting and stayed in the game. A few plays break differently, and they take home the win.

I feel pretty solid about a team that can play the Rockets close until the end of the game with Harden, Chris Paul, and Capela combining for 90 points.

Also, I love watching Blake Griffin take over games. He’s a star player and I love it when he has confidence in his shot and lets it fly.

He already leads the lead in touches, but many of these are him initiating the offense out of the post. I think he should start handling the ball more out on the perimeter, and be given the green light to shoot at will.

Griffin is, both statistically and by the eye-test, the best shooter on the team right now.

For what it’s worth, Blake ended the game with an eye-popping 37 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists. Drummond also added a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.