The Detroit Pistons picked up a key five-point win over the Minnesota Timberwolves last night
When Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham went down with a collapsed lung two weeks ago, the team’s hopes of securing the top seed in the Eastern Conference looked to be in jeopardy. At the time, the Pistons lead in the East hovered around four games, but the Boston Celtics, who stood in second place, were quickly pacing down Detroit with the addition of Jaydon Tatum back to their lineup.
Since that time, the Pistons have worked to plug Daniss Jenkins into the lineup in place of the squad’s All-Star floor general in order to make sure their finely-tuned machine keeps chugging along. Detroit’s run without Cunningham hasn’t always been pretty, but it’s been effective, which is what the Pistons have been going for.
As a result of Detroit’s on-the-fly adjustment, the Pistons have whittled their magic number in the East after a 113-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night. In the cross-conference matchup, the Pistons lost Tobias Harris in the first quarter to a knee injury that took the veteran forward out of the lineup for the rest of the game. But despite that key injury, the Pistons rode a two-man attack between Jenkins and Jalen Duren to a 48-point combined output, and Detroit moved one game closer to clinching the one seed as a byproduct.
“It was a tough one for us, to be honest with you,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “It didn’t start out the way we would've liked with a lot of turnovers in the first half. First quarter, we gave up some things we didn’t want to give up, but I give our guys credit. They just seem to figure out a way, and typically it starts with our defense, but then we have guys just step up. DJ was awesome tonight down the stretch. Obviously, the pressure that JD put on people, but it’s collective and so many guys contributed. Like, AT was unbelievable defensively. We had so many guys contribute, which is typical of this team.”
With Cunningham out for the entirety and Harris out for the majority of last night’s game, the Pistons had to rely on their bench to come through with a bit of support, and the newly acquired Kevin Huerter was ready, willing and able with 12 points, four rebounds and two assists as a reserve.
“We’re finding different ways to win,” Huerter said. “We didn’t feel like we played our best tonight, and we beat a really good team. A team that is coming in here, I know that they’re on a back-to-back, they’re missing obviously Ant, but a team that we beat a couple days ago that was gonna have some motivation coming in here and trying to get a W. It just feels like we find different ways to win. There are different guys, and we can piece it together. It’s the sign of a good team.”
As Huerter said, the hallmark of a quality team is their ability to adapt to the flow of the game mid-way through and to adjust when necessary. For the Pistons, Bickerstaff has pulled the basketballing levers in Motown expertly all season long, and the team is on the brink of seeing how far they can stretch their run into the playoffs.
Next up, the Pistons have an off day before traveling to Philadelphia for a 7 pm contest with the 76ers on Saturday, April 4 at 7 pm.
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