Pistons news: The Jalen Rose meme, Spoelstra's meltdown and The Play

It’s still hard to believe the Detroit Pistons pulled a win from the jaws of defeat last night in overtime against the Miami Heat. 

The game should have never gone to overtime, which is a problem the Pistons have to fix, as they have to learn how to close out games and not completely collapse as they did last night. 

Online Pistons fans being what they are, most of the focus was on the negative even though they won, the late turnovers, Tyler Herro abusing the defense and Cade Cunningham’s 4th-quarter woes. 

On a side note: That was one of the worst refereeing jobs I’ve seen in a while. After playing a game against Houston in which the refs basically pocketed their whistles, the zebras in this one were calling everything early, then suddenly stopped calling fouls late, the most egregious being the one committed by Bam Adebayo on a jump ball against Cade Cunningham. Adebayo clearly held Cunningham and kept him from jumping and the ref’s face was literally 10 inches from the play. I have no idea how they missed that one. Yes, Cade has to do a better job taking care of the ball, but you can’t mention that without mentioning he was getting hacked and held and didn’t get a call. If he gets one of those calls instead of the refs allowing a Miami mugging, the Pistons win in regulation. End of rant. 

I saw more Pistons fans complaining after we won than I did Heat fans, who lost the game in spectacular, gut-punch fashion, a feeling Pistons fans are used to. But a win is a win, and a couple of minutes didn’t undo the fact that Detroit mostly played a good game and got their first victory of the NBA Cup, albeit one that came in unconventional fashion. 

Erik Spoelstra’s meltdown 

If you had told me before the game that Erik Spoelstra, who has been one of the best coaches in the NBA for 17 years, would make a colossal mental blunder that would cost his team the game, I would not have believed it, but here we are. 

After getting pantsed on an inbounds play (more on that in a second) Spoelstra called a timeout he didn’t have, which resulted in a technical that gave the Pistons a free throw, the lead and the ball with essentially no time left on the clock. 

Not only that, but the Heat had six men on the floor, something that the Pistons got nailed for earlier in the season, which could have tacked on another technical. 

It was an inexplicable error from one of the best coaches of all time and I still can’t believe it happened. 

But it wasn’t the only unexpected play at the end of the game. 

JB Bickerstaff may have just won Coach of the Year 

After an epic collapse that nearly cost the Pistons the game in regulation, it would have been easy for this team to roll over. 

Oh, wait, they did. The Pistons weren’t a whole lot better taking care of the ball in overtime, but let’s stay positive here. 

I was starting to feel like puking with 1.8 seconds left and the Pistons down two, as it looked like they had completely blown a game they probably should have won by 15-20 points. When I saw Cade Cunningham taking the ball out it looked even worse, as I figured we were going to see an off-balance, contested 3-point shot from Malik Beasley or someone else as time ran out, leaving us stunned and ready to scorch the Earth. 

Instead, the Pistons ran a beautiful backdoor lob off a slick little screen from Malik Beasley, a play that will go unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, but was huge to get Duren behind the defense. 

The Heat were clearly selling out to try and stop a game-winning three. Coach Bickerstaff knew that, used Cade as a passer and decoy and got an easy dunk instead. Great play call at home where you are not afraid to go into another overtime. 

It was so nice to be on the winning side of a play like this, as it seems like I’ve been watching them go against the Pistons for years. 

Jalen Rose becomes an instant meme 

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone become a meme faster than Jalen Rose last night, whose facial expressions summarized how all of us were feeling and were immortalized within seconds.

It was Rose’s expression after Spoelstra made his timeout blunder that will live on forever. This is the face of a man having flashbacks to 1993 when his teammate Chris Webber lost a crucial game on a botched timeout call. 

It’s the perfect face for the ending of that game, which was wild, uncharacteristic and unprecedented for the Pistons, but counts as a “W” all the same. If you’re not at all excited about the progress this team is making and only want to focus on the negative in an uncritical and non-constructive way, kindly go kick rocks. 

LET’S. GO. PISTONS.