What went wrong with the Detroit Pistons final possession against Charlotte Hornets

Final set

With 7.9 seconds left, Rose caught an inbounds pass from Griffin fairly deep in the backcourt. It took awhile to figure out why the play took awhile to develop and it felt like Rose was stalling.

There was a reason for it. Notice the original alignment, which had Langston Galloway and Kennard above the 3-point line. Rose needed to give them time to cross to the corners and pull their defenders with them.

As a result, Rose doesn’t get to halfcourt until there are 5.7 seconds left. As showcased earlier this season, that’s plenty of time for him to get downhill and get to the rim.

His first step and ability to burst by opposing defenders is what makes him elite at getting downhill. He transitioned to the right wing and started his change of speed with 3.6 seconds left, which initiated the pick-and-roll with Drummond.

On Drummond’s roll, he was open for a full second as Batum was late to switch. A simple bounce pass that split the switch would’ve given Drummond an open layup or dunk. Rose also had space to bounce a pass around Bismack Biyombo, who defended him to the left elbow, for an open layup or dunk. But Rose’s mind was made up.

It’s important to remember Rose had several layups blocked earlier in the quarter, so he looked like he was going to attempt a stepback jumper, arriving to his spot with 1.2 seconds left.

But Bridges was blitzing off Kennard to, again, double Rose. Rose did well to find an open Kennard but the blitzing double team delayed the pass and was, ultimately, why the Pistons couldn’t get a final shot off.

Credit goes to Barrego for his decision to bring a double team on Rose and seal off a potential drive, especially after Rose was able to drive and get to the rim 12 days prior. Bridges executed the plan perfectly.

Solving Detroit’s late-game issues

A lot of fans believe the Pistons should utilize Griffin more in late-game scenarios, and they’re not wrong. But figuring out how to fit all five pieces is difficult to best utilize Griffin.

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I’m not sure the ball should be in Griffin’s hands as the primary ball-handler. The best decision to maximize the offense would be to have Rose or Kennard as the ball-handler and Griffin in the pick-and-roll.

For opposing defenses, it becomes more difficult to take something away without using an extra defender. Teams can no longer trap the ball-handler because of Griffin’s versatility and skilled ball-handling ability. Griffin also has the ability to pop out of a pick-and-roll and knock down a shot from anywhere on the floor.

The biggest issue in this situation is what to do with Drummond. He easily becomes the player to help off of, whether he’s on the perimeter or around the paint because of his lack of versatility to hit from outside the paint or low block.

Perhaps the best course of action in that scenario is to remove Drummond for, say, Christian Wood or another floor-spacing wing such as Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. If the Pistons can afford to substitute offense for defense, this may be the most optimal lineup.

Hopefully this helps explain the final seconds of the Pistons loss. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if forced into another tight game in their rematch Friday with the Hornets.