DETROIT – It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot closer to the offense that ranked No. 1 in the NBA over a 15-game span than the one coming off of its two most impotent games of the season. “How many points did we have, 111? That’s probably not the same pace we’ve been having,” Reggie Jackson said after the Pistons knocked off Lakers Lite – no LeBron James, Lonzo Ball or Brandon Ingram. “I was just proud of the way guys went back to being aggressive. You can live with aggressive mistakes and that was the best thing about tonight.” That Jackson played might have been the best thing about the night, given that he left American Airlines Arena in a walking boot less than 48 hours earlier when he twisted the same right ankle that suffered torn ligaments in December 2017. His shot didn’t fall in the first half, but Jackson scored 10 points in the third quarter when the Pistons went on a 13-0 run to put some distance between them and the Lakers. He finished with 20 points, hitting 4 of 10 from the 3-point arc, with five assists and a single turnover in 29 minutes. “I had a little tweak, felt a little tight at some point, got a little stiff in the first half,” Jackson said. “But opened back up a little bit in the second half. Wasn’t anything that was going to keep me out of the game.” It was a good night all around for the Pistons, who gained a game on Miami, restoring their cushion over the Heat to three full games after Miami lost a 23-point lead at home to lose to Milwaukee by 15. The Pistons, who got 19 points and 23 rebounds from Andre Drummond, also moved ahead of idle Brooklyn by percentage points to regain the No. 6 seed in the East. Dwane Casey liked the response he saw from his team, too, even though the undermanned Lakers hung around long enough that Casey was forced to play his starters into the fourth quarter. “I loved our compete level,” he said. “Win, lose or draw, when we fight and scrap like that, good things usually happen. I thought that was the difference. That’s what you’ve got to do at this time of year. It’s hard to get that energy level, the focus, but that’s what we’re here for.” The Pistons, 35-33, get a Sunday-Monday back to back – home against Toronto, at Cleveland – before embarking on a challenging four-game Western Conference trip that concludes with games against three of the top four teams: Portland, Golden State and Denver. And with that in mind, Blake Griffin wasn’t doing cartwheels over their relative struggle to pull away from the Lakers. “They’ve got two guys out for the season, resting their best player, playing some call-up guys, played last night, from what I heard got in at 4 in the morning – and they played harder than us for most of the game,” he said. “Obviously, you take the wins but you’ve got to be playing with the right spirit and playing the right brand of basketball. I didn’t think we did that tonight. I could be wrong. Once I see the tape, I could be a little too hard on us. But I know what’s around the corner. We play that type of basketball, we’ll get run out of the gym.” They might have gotten run out of Little Caesars if Langston Galloway hadn’t redeemed an otherwise miserable night for Casey’s bench. Galloway scored 23 points, hitting 4 of 6 from the 3-point arc and 8 of 10 overall, while the rest of the bench shot 7 of 20. The bench played poorly on offense to start the second quarter when the Lakers took their only lead, then poorly on defense to start the fourth quarter when they cut a 15-point deficit to eight. “You’re not going to play 48 minutes of perfect basketball,” Casey said. “I wish we could. But that’s not going to happen this time of year. Right now, it’s about finding a way to win. Tonight was L.G.’s night. Sunday may be somebody else’s night.”<doc-sep>FAST BREAKDOWN Three quick observations from Friday night’s 111-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Little Caesars Arena A WIN’S A WIN – It wasn’t a work of art, but it was worthy of hanging in a gallery coming on the heels of the two worst offensive performances of the season. The Pistons – who had the NBA’s No. 1 offense over 15 games from Feb. 1 through Sunday – scored 75 points in losing at Brooklyn on Monday and came back with 74 two nights later at Miami. Throw out an ugly second quarter in which they had to rally to score 19 points and the offense rebounded to beat a badly depleted opponent. The Lakers, who’d already grounded Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram for the season, were also without LeBron James, to the great disappointment of a crowded Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons used a 13-0 run that began midway through the quarter to break open a tight game. Langston Galloway hit 4 of 6 from the 3-point arc and led the Pistons with 23 points. Andre Drummond finished with 19 points and 23 rebounds, missing his 12th 20-20 of the season by one point. The Pistons scored 31 points in the third quarter and 65 in the second half. JACKSON’S BACK – Reggie Jackson needed aid to walk to the showers at Miami on Wednesday night and left American Airlines Arena in a walking boot, but he was back in the starting lineup on Friday. That kept intact Jackson’s streak of playing in all 68 games so far this season. He turned his right ankle – the same one in which he suffered a grade-3 sprain last season, costing him 37 games – midway through the fourth quarter at Miami. He missed shots early, but there was no apparent sign of Jackson being bothered by the injury. He warmed up the third quarter, when he scored 10 of his 20 points, had three assists and no turnovers. Reggie Bullock, Jackson’s backcourt partner for much of the past few seasons, made his return with the Lakers, who acquired him last month prior to the trade deadline. Bullock struggled, going 0 of 5 from the 3-point arc in a four-point outing. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the other ex-Pistons shooting guard for the Lakers, had a better night, finishing with 17 points in 30 minutes off the bench. GALLOWAY SPARKLES – One reason the game was still in doubt midway through the third quarter was the ineffectiveness of the Pistons bench in the second quarter. When Dwane Casey started waving his starters back into the game five minutes into the quarter, the Pistons had scored just five points and by the time he got them all back in the game with five minutes left in the quarter they were still stuck at five points. The five-point lead the Pistons held after the first quarter had turned into a one-point deficit. Their fourth-quarter stint didn’t go much better, though their problems were more at the defensive end that time. The Lakers scored 17 points in the first four minutes of the quarter to cut a 15-point deficit to eight. Langston Galloway was the only redeeming factor for the bench as he scored 10 of its 11 points in the second quarter on his way to 23 points. Everybody else finished in the red in plus/minus. Luke Kennard couldn’t get much to fall for him, finishing 2 of 9 shooting and 1 of 5 from the 3-point arc. Dwane Casey probably wanted to finish the game with his starters sitting out the fourth quarter, but he had to get Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin back with eight minutes to go.<doc-sep>The Detroit Pistons lost to the Miami Heat, 108-74, by virtue of getting outscored 30-18 in the first quarter and 33-8 (yes, eight whole points in 12 whole minutes) in the third quarter, and it was not the worst news of the night. THIS was the worst news of the night: #Pistons Reggie Jackson is down. It looks like another ankle injury...and it doesn't look good. At all. — Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) March 14, 2019 Down what might as well have been 50, Reggie Jackson was somehow still in the game, stepped on the foot of Zaza Pachulia, and is now injured. Y’all are on Detroit Bad Boys, I don’t have to tell you what a Reggie Jackson injury usually spells for the Pistons’ chances at winning games. If I have to watch Jose Calderon for 18 minutes a night, I might commit an homicide. Update: Reggie says he’s fine. I don’t trust him: #Pistons Reggie Jackson is icing his right ankle. He said he stepped on Zaza Pachulia's ankle and turned his. He said he'll be okay. — Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) March 14, 2019 I don’t have a lot of hard-hitting, in-depth analysis for you. Miami defended their butts off and Detroit didn’t make the shots they took and didn’t do a great job creating easy shots. Scoring < 80 points in consecutive games is sub-optimal. Detroit looked more like the team they were in January than the team they were in February. Hopefully that doesn’t continue. Maybe it does. It’s impossible to tell with this team. Pistons play the Lakers in Detroit on Friday. Maybe they’ll score more than 80 points in that game.<doc-sep>Detroit Pistons (34-32) at Miami Heat (31-35) When: 7:30 p.m. tonight. Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami. TV: Fox Sports Detroit. Radio: 97.1 FM (Pistons radio affiliates). • Box score Game notes: This is another game against a fellow postseason contender. The Pistons sit seventh, three games ahead of the eighth-place Heat in the Eastern Conference standings. On Monday, the Pistons were demolished in Brooklyn, ending Detroit's five-game win streak, and giving the Nets the sixth seed. ... The Pistons crushed the Heat, 119-96, on Feb. 23 in South Beach, and lead the season series, 2-1. More:Wayne Ellington views Pistons stint as audition for long-term stay More:For Pistons front office, here's why tanking was never an option Twitter updates Live updates for mobile users.<doc-sep>
The Detroit Pistons were gifted a golden opportunity Friday. With the Los Angeles Lakers destined to miss the postseason, the organization rested superstar LeBron James on the second night of a back-to-back. The Lakers were also missing point guard Lonzo Ball (left ankle) and Brandon Ingram (deep vein thrombosis). The Pistons took advantage, but it wasn’t easy. The offensive malaise of the past week continued for significant portions of the Pistons’ 111-97 victory at Little Caesars Arena, the eighth straight home victory. The Pistons needed 3-point marksmanship from Reggie Jackson, Wayne Ellington and Langston Galloway (four 3s each) to hold off the Lakers and snap a two-game losing streak. The Pistons (35-33), who lost by an average of 31 points in the two losses, shot 17-for-39 from long range (43.6 percent). Blake Griffin, who struggled with a 3-for-12 shooting night, wasn't happy with the lackluster effort. "They got two guys out for the season, resting their best player, playing some call-up guys who played last night and got here at four in the morning and they played harder than us," said Griffin, who had 15 points and nine assists. "Most of the game, we hit some shots and we got some stops and at this point in the season you obviously take the wins, but you got to be playing with the right spirit and playing the right brand of basketball. "I don't think we did that tonight, but I could be wrong once I see the tape." The Pistons move into a tie with the Brooklyn Nets for sixth in the Eastern Conference playoff chase, although the Nets hold the tiebreaker after beating the Pistons by 28 points Monday. Galloway led the Pistons with 23 points and Jackson — who rolled his right ankle in Wednesday’s loss at Miami — added 20 points on 6-for-19 shooting. Pistons coach Dwane Casey said pregame his starting point guard was fine. Jackson played 29 minutes. Andre Drummond had 19 points, 23 rebounds and two blocked shots. Javale McGee led the Lakers (31-38) with 20 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Former Piston Reggie Bullock, who was dealt to the Lakers at the trade deadline, struggled with four points and was 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Another former Piston, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, scored 17 off the bench, and Flint's Kyle Kuzma had 12 points and 10 assists. • Box score Offensive struggles continue With the Pistons' offensive rating a horrific 79.5 points per 100 possessions over the past two games, things figured to improve. They did slightly in the first quarter when the Pistons took a 27-22 lead behind nine early points from Blake Griffin. But the struggle returned in the second quarter with the bench unit unable to score. By the 4:17 mark, the Pistons had scored only five points, and trailed 35-32. Two Galloway 3-pointers keyed a 14-5 run, giving the Pistons a 46-40 lead at halftime. The Pistons were limited to 19 points in the second quarter. [ For Pistons front office, here's why tanking was never an option ] Tom Gores hosts Flint children The Pistons' owner hosted 50 youths from Flint Doyle Ryder Elementary as part of the “Flint Kids Are …” program. Gores is a Flint native. Gores’ FlintNow charitable organization is partnering with the United Way of Genesee County, the NBA Players Association and Hurley Children’s Hospital for the program designed to lift the self-esteem of Flint youths. Follow Vince Ellis on Twitter @vincent_ellis56. Read more on the Detroit Pistons and sign up for our Pistons newsletter.