Welcome to the NBA, Ebuka Okorie. The rookie guard selected 17th overall had a fairly eventful first preseason game in the NBA. After not playing at all for three quarters and seeing his team down 18 points, Ebuka came in and quickly scored three points to give Detroit its first lead of the night. He then capped it off with a game-winning drive in the final seconds of the game to give the Pistons a 109-107 victory over the Phoenix Suns at Little Caesars Arena.
In a game where the Pistons’ starters struggled with Phoenix’s physicality and intensity, the game completely turned around when both teams turned to their benches in the second half. Turns out all those Pistons fans saying Detroit might have the deepest team in the league might have been on to something. There was simply no match in terms of size, speed and talent between the end of Detroit’s roster and Phoenix’s.
Ron Holland scored a team-high 15 points and added five vintage Ron Holland steals, including a late one that pushed Detroit’s lead from three to five with less than a minute to play. Dannis Jenkins had a team-high plus-15 on the night, largely behind crisp, high-difficulty passing and a vintage, off-balance three with defenders in his face to tie the game after three quarters.
However, we should not dismiss the difficulties of the starters. There were a few errant passes, there were a lot of early shots and there weren’t many rebounds. The Pistons clearly went into this game with the goal of asking many players in larger offensive roles to put their summer jobs to the test. That meant a lot of ball-handling responsibility for Ausar Thompson, a lot of shooting from Holland, and a lot of minutes at center for John Collins (Jalen Duren was held in check as he stepped up his setup work with his teammates, and Paul Reed started in his place). It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s what preseason is for.
The Suns, meanwhile, wanted to keep things simple: run their offense and play with the kind of physicality that is non-negotiable for them as they look to build on the somewhat surprising 45-win season from a year ago. Devin Booker led the Suns with 13 points, and Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks added 11 each. Phoenix outrebounded Detroit 47-35, mostly building that advantage in the first half. The Pistons were able to thwart that with 21 steals that led to 37 points off turnovers. Most of that came against the Suns’ scrubs in the second half.
It was a fun game and vintage Detroit basketball. The Pistons will next play Saturday in Washington against the Wizards. Hopefully by then we’ll see some minutes of Jalen Duren.
Gn sports
