The Detroit Pistons’ first Emirates NBA Cup game of the 2024-25 season was a rare opportunity for a young team to earn a high-stakes berth outside of a playoff environment.
Before Wednesday’s opener, head coach JB Bickerstaff expressed excitement that his team could learn lessons from an atmosphere like this, where regular-season games come closest to imitating the postseason.
“We understand that in a meaningful basketball game, possession is more important, turnovers are more important, rebounds, executions, all of those things are more important,” Bickerstaff said. . “So this is a great opportunity for our players to experience that against a really good basketball team that has been through a lot of games. So for us, it’s a great opportunity to see where we are and ( It’s going to be a great test to see how we’ve learned from what happened from Sunday’s game against Houston to tonight, because we’re going to see a similar style.”
The thrilling, tumultuous, and bizarre overtime 123-121 victory over the Miami Heat taught many lessons and ultimately something the Pistons, now 5-7 overall, are figuring out. This is a new sign indicating that
Game: Detroit Pistons beat Miami Heat 123-121 thanks to Chris Webber’s last-minute technical
They led by 18 points in the first half and by nine points with just under two minutes left in the fourth. Tyler Herro took the game into overtime and sank three 3-pointers for a 40-point night. Both teams made mistakes in overtime, but the Pistons accomplished two things they had struggled with for years: staying calmer than their opponents and winning games.
“As a group, we deserved the win,” Tobias Harris said. “We gave up a little bit of a lead towards the end of the fourth quarter, but we have to learn from the leads we had in the past. How to maintain that lead, take care of basketball, and continue playing the game. I was able to win completely. Any win is a win in this league, and that was huge for us.
The Pistons started overtime with three consecutive turnovers and trailed by three points, 119-116, but Malik Beasley tied it with a three-point score with 40.9 seconds left. Herro made Miami’s final shot of the night, a hook over Beasley with 1.9 seconds left. The Pistons tied the game at 121 in the final second when Cunningham threw an inbounds lob to Duren for an alley-oop dunk. He executed the set exactly as the coaching staff envisioned it.
As late as the Pistons were and as many mistakes as they were, the biggest misstep of the night was for the Heat. Head coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout after Duren’s dunk, resulting in a technical foul and Beasley sinking the next free throw to give the Pistons a one-point lead. The Heat also had six players on the floor at one point, giving the ball and the game to the Pistons.
Bickerstaff’s pregame words were prophetic. The turnover was more important and almost cost us the game. However, the Pistons bounced back with clutch shot-making and defense, holding the Heat to 4-of-11 shots in overtime. And last year, after going 0-4 with 28 straight losses, they won their first NBA Cup Tournament win.
“That’s what it took, and that’s how you win in this league,” Bickerstaff said. “We instilled in our players the importance of this game. We wanted it to be meaningful to them. It gives us experience of what will happen in the future and we want it to be meaningful to them. It makes us understand what it takes to win meaningful basketball games like this, and stopping is the only way you can do it consistently.
“We won, so we passed the test,” he continued. “We found a way and fought around ourselves at times, but we did enough to get the win. I’ll give our effort an ‘A’, execution and things like that, where we can always improve.” However, I think I was able to play well enough to contribute to the victory until the end. ”
The Pistons committed eight turnovers through the first three quarters, but had more than that with 11 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Cade Cunningham played five of the 11 games, including one with 21 seconds left in the fourth that gave the Heat the last possession of the period and four in overtime.
Still, they were able to put in enough effort to win. Cunningham committed the final turnover of the night with 17 seconds left, giving Herro a near-winner on the other side, but the Pistons guard’s assist to Duren ended up saving the night.
“It got physical and they started denying everything,” Cunningham said of the turnovers. “That was the main thing. We also stopped spacing the floor, clogged the floor, allowed them to be physical and crowd the ball, and then gave the ball away.
“It’s been busy. We feel great about it. It’s a big win. Really good team, great coach. He always keeps them ready. Tim went down to get the win. But being able to get that one out meant a lot to everyone.”
The win moves the Pistons into a tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference, with a 5-5 record and the same number of wins as the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers. There’s still plenty of season left, but the Pistons are on pace to win 34 games, a huge jump from their franchise-worst 14 wins last season.
“It was fun, that’s all I can really say,” Duren said. “It’s been a lot of fun since the beginning, preseason. Getting to know these guys, growing with them, including the guys that were here, growing with them, continuing to improve, continuing to learn from each other. It’s great. We’ve been through a lot. It’s huge for us to gain momentum.”
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow @omarisankofa.
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