Pistons Respond To Jackson's Final Shot, Tolliver's Suspect Foul On Durant
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Down eight with 46 seconds to play, the Pistons looked finished versus the Warriors.
But they went on a quick 6-0 spurt, buoyed by a steal and an Avery Bradley three, and then Shaun Livingston missed two free throws at the other end.
Suddenly, with 17 seconds left, the Pistons were down by two and they had the ball. They put it in Reggie Jackson's hands.
Stan Van Gundy had a timeout in his pocket, but he prefers to let these kind of scenarios play out. It keeps the defense on its heels. So Jackson let the clock wind down to about 10 seconds, wound up from beyond the arc and drove hard toward the basket. He was swarmed by a horde of defenders when he entered the lane, but managed to get a shot off.
It grazed off the side of the rim.
Klay Thompson grabbed the rebound and iced the game with two free throws. Warriors 102, Pistons 98.
What was Stan Van Gundy's view of Jackson's isolation play?
"He drove it hard and a lot of people came to the ball and we had two guys open weak side. That's what I saw. But it's a lot easier to sit and watch it on tape and see it than it is when you're the guy driving the ball to the basket," he said.
Jackson's shot was a bit reckless, and he indeed would have been better off kicking it out to a teammate. But his teammates stood by his decision to try to make the play himself.
"He did what he does best. He attacked the basket and the ball didn't go in, simple as that," said Andre Drummond. "Nine times out of 10 we'd probably give it to him again. It was just one of those nights it didn't fall for him."
Bradley, who led the team with 25 points and had the hot hand in the fourth quarter, said a Jackson isolation is what the Pistons are looking for in that situation.
"Reggie is a playmaker for our team. His aggressiveness doesn't only give himself the opportunity to score the ball, but it gives him the chance to make plays for other guys on the team. That's what he tried to do. To me, he made a great play, it's just unfortunate that it wasn't able to go in," Bradley said. "That's not the reason why we lost the game."
Bradley made a point of telling Jackson that in the locker room.
"Of course, of course, because Reggie is a true competitor and I know he's a little down that he wasn't able to make that shot for our team," said Bradley. "But we believe in him. We know that he might get that opportunity another game and we're always going to have faith in him. We want him to continue to be one of our leaders and continue to be aggressive, because that helps our team."
Jackson, who finished with 16 points but just two in the second half, was not available for comment after the game.
It looked like the Warriors were initially going to pull away when they opened up a 12-point lead early in the fourth. But the Pistons cut it to 84-82 with about six minutes to play and had Little Caesars Arena on its feet. It was then, with momentum on Detroit's side, that Anthony Tolliver was called for a questionable foul while contesting a Kevin three-point attempt.
Durant missed, but sank all three free throws to push the Warriors' lead to five.
Replays showed that Tolliver didn't make contact with Durant until stepping on his foot as he landed. The officials strangely went to the monitor to check for a flagrant, but it stood as a common foul.
Van Gundy had a pretty clear idea as to why the foul was called in the first place.
"Well, because it was Kevin Durant who went down -- and they said it was definitely a foul. I don't agree, having looked at it, but it's Kevin Durant," said Van Gundy.
Drummond sidestepped the question when asked if it was the right call.
"I'm not trying to get fined, so I can't answer that," he said.
When a reporter pointed out that, in essence, he'd just answered it, Drummond smiled and said, "I answered it indirectly."
The defeat was the Pistons' fifth straight, dropping them to 14-11 on the season. But Drummond, who was relatively buoyant in his post-game interview, isn't concerned.
"This stretch was bound to happen," he said. "We've been playing great all year, adversity was going to come. It's what we do with it that's going to show for our team."
