Detroit Pistons have clawed their way to sixth seed

The Detroit Pistons have turned their season around and with a win over Dwane Casey’s former team, launch themselves into a sixth seed.

The Detroit Pistons were spiraling out of control.

They had fallen to the 10th seed and were 21-27.

Internal wars among Pistons followers started.

Dwane Casey was being criticized, Reggie Jackson was a issue at the point guard spot, and Andre Drummond was being compared to role players (it was and still is very dumb).

Then the Pistons turned things around.

Fast forward to March 2nd. The Detroit Pistons found themselves game away from .500 (30-31) and tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the sixth seed after blowing out the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The blowout win gave the Pistons starters a much needed rest and time to get ready for the second end of a back-to-back.

Not any kind of back-to-back, not against any team in the NBA.

Against the Toronto Raptors; Casey’s former team from 2011-2018. The same team that watched Casey bring home Coach of the Year honors after firing him.

With a chance to move into sole control of sixth seed and get back to .500, what a better team to against with that much in stake than the Raptors?

The crowd was loud; for both of the teams on the court. An optimist would say it was 50/50 Raptor-Pistons fans, but it certainly felt at times both teams had a home court advantage.

The Pistons had to play from behind in the second half. It wasn’t looking good for Detroit’s front-court, with Drummond and Thon Maker having five fouls and Zaza Pachulia getting ejected. Drummond was forced to play with five fouls from the seven minute mark in the third quarter on.

You could sense the team knew how big of a game this was.

With 41 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Jackson gave the Pistons the lead and eventually sent the Pistons into overtime.

Again. Drummond has five fouls, an extra period of basketball is not what the Detroit Pistons had to of hoped for. Jackson had just picked up his fifth foul, so two of your best players were on the verge of fouling out the game with five more minutes to go.

The Pistons fell behind by five early on in overtime, and the offense looked extremely stagnant. It looked as if the back-to-back was finally catching up with them. But, Casey called a timeout and seemingly calmed his players down and got them back on page.

After the Pistons timeout with 2:18 to go, Detroit would go on to score the rest of the games points; keeping the Raptors at 107 for the final two minutes of overtime.

To symbolize how great of a game this was by the Pistons big man, Drummond ended the Raptors final possession with a block on Marc Gasol in the post. The same guy who had five fouls since the middle of the third, played tremendous defense the rest of the way, and was the best player on the court.

Drummond ended this game with a +27 plus/minus. By far a game high, with the next closest being Luke Kennard with +8.

You see, this game showed more than just the Detroit Pistons jumping into sixth seed.

This showed a team that’s improving, a team that is playing smarter but better. A team that is featuring a legitimate Big Three with Griffin, Drummond, and Jackson.

The coaching by Casey has gotten better with familiarity, and he’s put his players in the best positions to succeed. He’s let Kennard off the leash since trading away Reggie Bullock, which has led to Kennard playing the best basketball of his career.

The Detroit Pistons are rising in just about every area. This team is giving fans a reason to show up and support them. They are now 10-4 in their last 14 games, and have won eight of their last 10. This is the team many of us pictured coming together after an off-season together, but health stood in the way of it happening earlier in the season.

However, their mission is far from accomplished. There is still 21 more games to go, with the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets, and Miami Heat all on their heels in the playoff race.

Being in sixth seed is cool for us fans right now, but Griffin understands this means nothing.

“What have we done? We’ve had a good stretch and a lot of teams have good stretches. Being in 6th or 7th seed is absolutely nothing to be proud of. We tricked off two months of basketball.”

The resiliency, fight, heart, and attitude in this team has been absolutely amazing to see over the last month and a half. But, Griffin is right. The Detroit Pistons haven’t done anything yet. Holding a .5 game lead in the sixth seed isn’t something to be celebrating.

At least that’s not what winning teams do.

And that’s the attitude Griffin has brought to Detroit. It’s time we all adopt it.