Detroit Pistons lose at the buzzer after huge comeback against Nuggets

The game started for the Detroit Pistons with Andre Drummond winning the tip as he usually does, and straight away Reggie Jackson found Blake Griffin wide open under the basket… who took 3 attempts (tip-ins after missing the initial shot) to come away with no basket. That set the tone for the Detroit Pistons who then took 4:20 (Ironic given the game was in Denver) to score their first field goal for the game.

The Pistons took an 18 point deficit at the end of the first quarter, thanks to this effort by Nikola Jokic.

But the Pistons were able to scrape it back to a 10 point deficit through the second quarter… only to have that erased by halftime and out to a 27 point deficit, which was all thanks to Jamal Murray‘s 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting.

For those Detroit Pistons fans that sat through what could only be described as torture, they were rewarded in the fourth quarter as they went on a huge run bringing the game back to a 2 point game! The Detroit Pistons kept it close to the final whistle, as Blake Griffin missed an open 3 as the buzzer went. The Detroit Pistons only allowed 29 points in the entire second half, while scoring 53 and looking like a completely different team to the first half.

Despite the awful start, the second half fight shown by the Detroit Pistons should give fans hope, they have the capability to fight and demonstrated that tonight.

Takeaways from the game:

1. Slow Starts are killing the Pistons. The slow starts by the Detroit Pistons which have become a thing, are killing them. All Pistons fans would know that them being down 10 in a first quarter isn’t unusual. The Pistons have shown the ability to play good basketball and shrink a deficit but they need to not put themselves behind the 8-ball so regularly.
2. The Pistons do have fight. The Detroit Pistons just came back from 27 down, to lose on the buzzer… let that sink in. They have the ability to fight and we can talk about how they shouldn’t be down that much (and I agree), but at least they fought.
3. Andre Drummond is critical for their Defense. It’s no coincidence that the Detroit Pistons best play came when Andre Drummond was on the floor in the fourth quarter. In only 29 minutes he was a +11, third best on the team. He was instrumental in their run to come back and even have a shot at beating Denver.

The Detroit Pistons next game is at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday against the Orlando Magic in what I would call a must-win game.