The Golden State Warriors entered Friday night’s road game with the 16th-best offense in the NBA, a number that has dropped to 23rd during Steph Curry’s prolonged absence. Their opponent, the Detroit Pistons, entered the game with the league’s second-best defense.
It wasn’t a fair fight, though the broadcast’s frequent mentions of how long Detroit had gone since winning 50 games or a playoff series — 18 years in both cases, though they reached the 50-win plateau yesterday — served as a reminder that the recently-dynastic Dubs won’t be getting sympathy points from any team or fanbase. They had their run in the sun, and now they’re subject to other teams’. Somewhere out there, John Tesh is making a synth-heavy remix of The Lion King’s “Circle of Life,” and it’s quite lovely.
The Warriors caught the Pistons during a bad stretch, which is to say that MVP candidate Cade Cunningham has a collapsed lung and is sidelined for the foreseeable future. But once Cunningham’s All-Star running mate Jalen Duren was cleared to play, shortly before tip-off, the outcome of the game became somewhat predetermined.
Golden State — sans Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler III, Al Horford, Quinten Post, and Moses Moody — would surely struggle to both score on Detroit’s dynamic, athletic, Bad Boys V3.0 defense, and struggle to contain their large and hyper-athletic squad. And wouldn’t you know it — sometimes basketball makes sense. Sometimes the square peg fits in the square hole and it all works, even when you don’t want it to. And so it was that the Pistons beat the Warriors 115-101 in a game that went precisely as you expected it to.
Well, almost precisely. It took a detour at the start, as the Warriors tried to make the Pistons the latest team that they shocked with a March Madness underdog-inspired upset. The Dubs matched Detroit’s defensive pace early, with a tremendous amount of energy, effort, and aggression. It made for an atrociously ugly game in the early goings, but it was fun: it was physical and sloppy, which was compounded by poor officiating and separate incidents of players flying off the court that resulted in a spilled drink and an overturned candy container. Five minutes in, the score stood a 1990s-esque 7-7, with all of Golden State’s points coming courtesy of De’Anthony Melton (he would net their first nine, and take a breather before a single teammate had scored).
The Warriors were scrappy on offense, but not good. They were accomplishing things through sheer will, in spite of their poor execution. Their defense, on the other hand, was good, if unconventional. Steve Kerr kept things from getting predictably by running a zone late in the quarter, which silenced Detroit, and suddenly the Warriors took the lead. Despite having seven turnovers in the opening frame, they ended things on a 12-1 run, and led 26-21.
Things got even rosier when the second quarter began. Two-way contract LJ Cryer, back after a few absences due to a hamstring injury, wasted no time impacting the game, with a pair of threes in the first few minutes, pushing the Warriors lead to 38-29, and forcing a Pistons timeout.
Whatever J.B. Bickerstaff said in that timeout worked. It was as if the Pistons magically remembered that they’re an elite defensive team, and suddenly Golden State’s offense went flatter than a frat keg on a Tuesday morning. And as it did, Detroit started to find their rhythm on offense, and began cutting away at the nine-point deficit. With just over four minutes, the Pistons finally tied the game, and shortly after they retook the lead. The Warriors were leaking oil, yet somehow staying right with the Pistons … they didn’t look as good as their counterpart, but the scoreboard certainly didn’t reflect that (in part because the Warriors were red-hot from deep, while Detroit couldn’t buy a bucket beyond the arc).
Inside of a minute remaining in the half, the Warriors trailed by just two points. But then came a game-shifting sequence of events. The Pistons had the ball, and were playing for a two-for-one, which they executed perfectly. Duncan Robinson drained a three, and on the other end, the Warriors could only hoist a shot-clock beating circus shot. As the prayer went up, Robinson leaked out, and after a quick outlet, he had an easy transition layup right before the halftime buzzer.
Just like that, the Pistons had landed what felt like — and proved to be — the knockout blow, and took a 57-50 advantage into the break.
Things went from bad to worse before the second half even began. Kristaps Porziņģis, who had subbed himself out of the game late in the first, was nowhere to be found on the court or in the bench, with Malevy Leons taking the court in his stead. The Warriors announced that Porziņģis — who had finally been healthy — was ruled out for the game with lower back soreness. The slim chances of winning the game grew slimmer still and, more importantly, Porziņģis’ future for the final 12 games of the season now hangs in doubt.
From there, it just kept getting worse. The Warriors could not get anything going on offense, as the Pistons completely suffocated them. Possession after possession, the Warriors looked like they were playing five-on-six against their big brothers. Not only was every shot contested, but every pass, every cut, and every dribble. It was a truly swarming defensive effort, and if you haven’t watched Detroit much this year, it left you tipping your cap to a team that has it truly figured out on that end of the court. Add in the sheer physicality, and you can bet that Bill Laimbeer and Ben Wallace are grinning every time they turn on a game.
As the quarter went on, the Pistons used their elite defense to generate easy offensive opportunities, either through transition buckets or clear mismatches. The deficit grew to double digits, and then ballooned into the high teens. The Warriors tried to find opportunities on offense, but every bucket felt like a chore, and they trailed 87-73 at the end of the quarter.
Whatever closeness they had entering the final frame was immediately lost. The Pistons scored before the quarter even began, on a free throw courtesy of a between-quarters technical foul on Gary Payton II. Duren followed that up with a layup. Leons turned the ball over on the ensuing possession, and then Duren sank a pair of free throws. Ömer Yurtseven turned the ball over, and then Duren finished an alley-oop with emphasis. The Pistons scored the first 10 points of the quarter, and Kerr called a timeout before Golden State have even made a bucket. It took more than three minutes for the Warriors to score in the fourth, and nearly four-and-a-half minutes before they made a field goal.
By then, the outcome was long concluded, and all that was left was to see what the final score would be. It wasn’t as close as the 115-101 outcome, but a little garbage time preening will have that effect on a scoreboard.
The Warriors dramatically outshot the Pistons from deep, going 12-for-33 (36.4%) compared to Detroit’s 5-for-21 (23.8%). But everything else was one-sided. Detroit’s advantage in the paint was sizable — literally and figuratively — and led to a chasm separating the two teams’ marks from inside the arc. Golden State shot 53.5% (23-for-43) on twos, while the Pistons shot an absurd 61.5% (40-for-65).
Detroit scored an eye-popping 74 points in the paint, while the Warriors had just 44. Despite how much they played like an old-school, bruising, back-to-the-basket squad, they held an equally dominant advantage in fastbreak points: 19-5. And any chance that the Warriors had to keep things close evaporated with their 26 turnovers (which just 23 assists), while forcing 15.
Brandin Podziemski led the Warriors with 15 points, and also led the way with six rebounds (a mark that Yurtseven matched). Melton and Gary Payton II contributed 14 points, while Gui Santos had a well-balanced 13-5-5 line. Draymond Green led the playmaking with six assists, but was held scoreless against his hometown team.
The Warriors, who fell to 33-37, now get to face Jonathan Kuminga and the Atlanta Hawks in the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday night. It’s the penultimate game of the six-game road trip, and tips off at 5:00 p.m. PT.
