The Detroit Pistons are officially headed back to the playoffs after a 115-101 victory on Friday night over the Golden State Warriors. It will be the first time since the 2008-09 season that the Pistons have made back-to-back appearances in the postseason.
In a game where Detroit and Golden State were without Cade Cunningham and Stephen Curry, respectively, both teams were relying on others to take on heavier scoring duties. Fortunately for the Pistons, they would receive the greater contributions from their role players.
Daniss Jenkins filled in for the second game in a row as the Pistons’ starting point guard, as Cunningham deals with a collapsed lung. Jenkins bounced back from his Thursday night 3-16 shooting performance against the Washington Wizards in tremendous fashion. The second-year man from St. John’s dropped 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists in a much more efficient 7-12 night from the field.
That stat line is right around Cunningham’s 24.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 10 assists averages, so Jenkins essentially covered the MVP candidate’s contributions at least for one night.
Detroit’s primary backup big man and enforcer, Isaiah Stewart, is out with a calf strain. Paul Reed has been the main fill-in for those Stewart minutes, and he made the most of it on back-to-back nights. After dropping 17 points on Thursday against the Wizards, Reed followed up with another 15 on Friday. The sixth-year veteran also added six rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block to his line, contributing in every aspect of the game.
Jalen Duren dropped 23 points, making it his fifth consecutive game of reaching the 20-point mark. He only needed 21 minutes to accomplish this, on a very efficient 8-12 FG and 7-9 FT shooting night. Duren’s output continues to increase, and with that, so does his confidence. The first-time All-Star spoke to that during his post-game press conference.
That confidence is there. I don’t feel like it’s really any bigs that can stay in front of me in the league when I’m playing at the level I’m supposed to be playing at.
Duren talks a big game, but has the performances to back up what he’s saying. That Pistons’ hard-nosed mentality is there with this young rising star.
Other key contributors from Friday’s game were Tobias Harris, who had 13 points, along with Duncan Robinson and Ron Holland, who each dropped 11. Detroit will now have the weekend off before hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night at Little Caesars Arena. Cunningham will still be on the shelf, so the Pistons will again have to rely on others stepping up their games versus Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Detroit has a four-game lead in the East with 12 games left in the regular season. If the Pistons hold on, they would finish as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
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