Playing for a fifth-consecutive victory, the Detroit Pistons needed every bit of overtime before falling to the Atlanta Hawks on the game's very last shot by a 130-129 margin on Wednesday night. 

With the game on the line, the Pistons went to Tobias Harris once again. Just minutes earlier, the Pistons called Harris’ number at the end of regulation on an iso mid-range curler from the charity stripe to force overtime, so the veteran forward was already dialed in and ready to go. 

In OT with five second left, Harris accepted the inbounds pass near the baseline. The Hawks quickly sent a double as Harris fired off an arcing shot that missed the rim, falling directly into Jalen Duren’s waiting hands. JD instinctively went for a put-back with time expiring but could not get the bucket to fall, which snapped the Pistons’ winning streak at four games. 

The Pistons were still without Cade Cunningham for the Eastern Conference battle, so Daniss Jenkins stuck in the starting lineup against the Hawks. Jenkins hit a few pivotal shots during his 19-point effort, but Duren led the way from Detroit’s side of the affair with another massive double-double, totalling 26 points and 14 rebounds in the narrow defeat. 

The Pistons cut their rotation down to 10 men on Wednesday without Cunningham, Marcus Sasser or Isaiah Stewart in the lineup, and one of the main byproducts to the shortened bench was an extended run for Ausar Thompson in a competitive back-and-forth matchup. 

Tasked with defending C.J. McCollum for most of the night, Thompson is equally aggressive on the offensive side of the ball with an efficient 18 point (9-for-11 FGs), four rebound, five assist, four steal, one block performance against Atlanta. The Pistons asked for a lot out of Thompson considering the defensive load he carries each night, but AT stepped up with an emotional, inspired effort against one of the hottest teams in the NBA, clearly signalling that he was up for the challenge considering the Hawks’ 13-1 record entering the night. 

Thompson was more involved as a ball handler at the point of attack without Cunningham’s influence, and he even sprinkled in a few highly acrobatic finishes at the rim. During the first quarter, Thompson reached way back into another zip code to reel in a lob slam dunk to open the game, then the spring-loaded third-year forward corralled an alley-oop lay-up during the second half to round out his highlight package. 

From the Hawks’ perspective, Nickeil Alexander-Walker continued his dominant month of March with a hot start in the first quarter as the first Atlanta player to hit double figures in the game. After that, Jalen Johnson began to heat up in the second and third quarters, and the Duke product posted 27 points in the game before McCollum began to find his rhythm in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Ultimately, the Pistons fell just short of a dangerous Hawks squad that could very well make some noise in the postseason several weeks from now.

At 52-20 on the season, the Pistons have a game scheduled for tomorrow night against the New Orleans Pelicans at 7 pm at home. 

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