Yeah, yeah, the Detroit Pistons have lost 21 of their last 22 games. They’ve got the worst record in the NBA. They’ve got two games left and if they lose both, they’ll tie for the worst record in franchise history.
All of this happened after the team’s general manager, Troy Weaver, declared his team ready to compete back in September. Said they were at “ground zero,” that the young core was set, that the “restoration,” a word he uses frequently as an homage to past title teams, was in its next phase.
The next phase didn’t come.
So, yeah, it’s bad. And has been bad. And there are questions. Questions we’ll consider soon enough.
For now, though, how about a moment of light? Couldn’t you use one?
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Good. Let’s go to the fourth quarter Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons were up a point on the Miami Heat. Jimmy Butler had just made a short jumper, the kind of shot that has made him an All-Star.
The Pistons were down seven at the half. They’d trailed by as much as 15 in the second quarter. They’d absorbed a couple of 3-pointer-driven runs and fought back, despite missing six rotation players, including its two best in Cade Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Now there was a little over five minutes left. Jalen Duren, Killian Hayes, Jaden Ivey, Cory Joseph and Eugene Omoruyi were on the floor. Somehow, they’d made it a game.
After Butler’s jumper to cut the lead to one, Ivey had the ball near the end of the shot clock. He was on the right side, near the 3-point line. He took a short pass from Duren, used Duren as a shield, dribbled toward the baseline, took a step back, rose, and fired a 15-footer over the arm of Heat center Bam Adebayo.
Splash.
It was a shot he didn’t take much at Purdue nor, for that matter, earlier this season, and yet it looked like he’d been hitting the Butler-esque shot all his career. A few minutes later, he hit another tough midranger from a similar spot.
That bucket stopped a Heat run. It wasn’t enough. Miami pulled away.
Ivey, though, scored 30, tying a career high. He hit four 3s, two of them consecutively right after he’d airballed one from the corner.
He got to the rim and scored through contact. He had seven assists and would’ve had a couple more if not for teammates missing open layups off his passes — a complaint you’d never hear from him, by the way.
He played solid help-side defense, an area his coach, Dwane Casey, said he’s gotten much better in as of late. He played even better on-ball defense, which is still a work in progress, as is his penchant for turnovers — he had five.
But it was the off-the-dribble midrange pullups that stood out, and forced Miami coach Erik Spoelstra to change his defense and start double-teaming Ivey 25 feet from the basket.
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“Did you see what he was doing to us before we started blitzing him?” Spoelstra asked reporters after the game.
Yeah, we did, and it was tantalizing, and certainly not a fluke. Ivey tosses in stinkers still, and he isn’t going to go 4-for-6 from 3-point range every night, as he did Tuesday. But his performance against the Heat isn’t the first time he’s played like that.
He’s shooting 39.2% from 3 over seven games entering Wednesday’s matchup with Brooklyn. His vision — and passing — continues to impress. And he isn’t just relying on his speed to attack the paint. He is more patient.
“Midseason, I feel like it just started to slow down for me a little bit,” Ivey said. “I feel like I’ve improved in areas where earlier in the season I was making mistakes. I’ve tried to watch film every single day with my coaches and look at the mistakes, and next game being able to correct (them). I think that’s the biggest thing. There is still more growth to go.”
Ivey came into the press room after the loss and hung his head low to the table, almost touching it. He looked like he was sitting postgame after a loss in the NCAA tournament.
Here was the second-to-last home game of the year, when the team had nothing to play for, and Ivey was almost despondent.
“I want to win so bad,” he finally said. “That’s all I think about.”
He plays like it, too. And has since the season began. And as tough as it has been for the team to be without so many regulars — to be without Cunningham, especially — Ivey has gotten the chance to run the team and show he’s more than an open-floor menace seeking the rim.
The chance has expedited his play, to the point where he’s getting doubled by one of the better defensive teams in the league. And though he struggled at times with the doubles, he still found a way to make a few plays, especially for himself.
Moving forward, he’ll have to learn how to make more consistent reads as defenses react to his explosive talent.
“That’s his next area of growth,” Casey said.
He’ll also have to adjust next season with Cunningham. That’s a good problem, though, and offers hope in what has otherwise been a dreary season.
“He’s got so much speed and tonight he was hitting his 3s and his mid-range shots, which makes him even tougher,” said Spoelstra. “He’s a special young talent.”
And lately a bit of light.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.