Welcome to the NBA, Ebuka Okorie. The rookie guard chosen seventeenth total had fairly an eventful first preseason sport in the NBA. After not taking part in at all through three quarters and seeing his group go down 18 factors, Ebuka entered and promptly hit a three-pointer to give Detroit its first lead of the night time. He then capped it off with a game-winning drive in the sport’s remaining seconds to give the Pistons a 109-107 win over the Phoenix Suns at Little Caesars Arena.
In a sport where the Pistons starters struggled with Phoenix’s physicality and depth, the sport fully flipped when both groups turned to their benches in the second half. It turns out all those Pistons followers saying Detroit might have the deepest group in the league might have been onto something. There was just no match in measurement, pace, and expertise between the finish of Detroit’s roster and Phoenix’s.
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Ron Holland scored a team-high 15 factors and added 5 classic Ron Holland steals, including one late that pushed Detroit’s lead from three to 5 with less than a minute left in the sport. Dannis Jenkins was a team-high plus-15 on the night time, largely behind some crisp and high-degree-of-difficulty passes and a classic off-balance three with defenders in his face to tie the sport after three quarters.
We should not handwave away the starters’ struggles, though. There was some errant passing, there were a lot of early pictures, and there wasn’t a lot of rebounding. The Pistons clearly went into this sport with an eye toward asking a lot of the gamers stepping into bigger offensive roles to put their summer season of work to the check. That meant a lot of ball-handling accountability for Ausar Thompson, a lot of taking pictures from Holland, and a lot of heart minutes for John Collins (Jalen Duren was held out as he ramps up his prep work with teammates, and Paul Reed began in his place). It wasn’t always fairly, but that is what preseason is for.
The Suns, meanwhile, needed to keep it easy — run their offense and play with the sort of physicality that is non-negotiable for them as they search to construct on the considerably shocking 45-win season of a 12 months in the past. Devin Booker led the Suns with 13 factors, and Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks added 11 apiece. Phoenix dominated Detroit on the boards 47-35, largely building up that benefit in the first half. The Pistons were in a position to counteract that with 21 steals that led to 37 factors off turnovers. Most of that achieved against the Suns’ scrubs in the second half.
It was a enjoyable sport, and some classic Detroit basketball. The Pistons will next play on Saturday in Washington against the Wizards. Hopefully by then we will see some Jalen Duren minutes.
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