DETROIT — All season, J.B. Bickerstaff has harped on one thing being paramount to the Detroit Pistons’ long-term success: peaking at the perfect time.
He’s reiterated it from the Pistons’ 13-game win streak in November to their four-game losing streak in March. As Bickerstaff subbed out his starters Sunday to a standing ovation from the Little Caesars Arena crowd in a sea of blue and white rally towels, his vision was coming to fruition.
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Detroit shut the door on the Orlando Magic’s season and, in the process, unlocked the best version of itself in a 114-96 Game 7 win.
The Pistons dug themselves out of a 3-1 hole, and after staving off elimination for three consecutive games, they seem to be peaking. They won their first playoff series since 2008, and enter the second round chiseled by the challenges they conquered.
“The Magic, credit to them. They pushed us. They really made us take a look in the mirror,” Cade Cunningham said after his 32-point, 12-assist performance Sunday. “I think we got a lot better from this series. I got a lot better. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about the team. This series really is going to set us up for our next series, and I think we’ll be a lot better for it.”
Cunningham solidified himself as a true superstar by spearheading Detroit’s series comeback. He’s already a two-time All-Star on the verge of being selected to his second All-NBA team, but Cunningham was forced to conjure up a level of play he’d yet to produce in the postseason.
It was fitting for him to do so against the same franchise the Pistons beat nearly 23 years ago to the day after also battling back from a 3-1 series deficit.
Cunningham averaged 36.3 points, 6.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals on 52/61/89 shooting splits in the three elimination games. But as good as he was, he wasn’t the only Detroit player to step up. Tobias Harris had 30 points in the win, the most he’s scored with the Pistons — including his first stint with the team from 2016-2018.
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“Nobody can say s— to me about Tobias Harris,” Bickerstaff said of the man he’s called a “safety blanket” since last season. “He is dependable, reliable, prepared for the moment. He’s a leader. He’s a great teammate. He’s a great human being. He’s a high-level competitor. To show up (Sunday) and do what he did when it was on the line the most, it’s exceptional.”
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Harris averaged 21.6 points in the series, more than any seven-game stretch during the regular season. He has looked qualified to be the Pistons’ second scoring option during the playoffs thus far. He scored 17 of his 30 in the second quarter to help create some separation for Detroit.
Amid that 17-point second-quarter burst, Harris scored 11 in a row to close out the first half. The Pistons were in need of a run to generate momentum entering halftime, and Harris delivered. He was as demonstrative as he’s been all season. After an and-1, he walked directly to Detroit’s bench flexing, letting them know he was built for those type of moments.
Apart from Cunningham and Harris being clear postseason risers, Ausar Thompson’s impact was also invaluable over the Pistons’ last seven games. The 6-foot-7 wing’s 16 steals and 16 blocks combined were more than any player in the first round, and his point-of-attack defense completely stymied Orlando’s starting backcourt. Jalen Suggs averaged 11.1 points, while Desmond Bane mustered 18.1 on 39.1 percent shooting. Thompson was at the heart of the Pistons’ playoff-best 101.9 defensive rating.
His ability to change games with solid defensive play lent itself to an unshakeable belief in Detroit’s ability to win the series.
“Even when we were down 3-1 we were confident we were going to win,” Thompson said to reporters as he sat in front of his locker. “When we were down 24 (in Game 6), we were confident we were going to win. We’re still confident we’re going to win going forward.”
Jalen Duren, who never quite rediscovered the offensive production he’d established during the regular season, had his best outing of the series in Game 7, finishing with a 15-point, 15-rebound double-double. Duren spoke postgame on his unwavering belief in both himself and the Pistons’ team as a whole.
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“In our locker room, we know what we are,” Duren said. “As a team, as a group, as an organization — we don’t take the dawg s— lightly. We really feel like we’re some dawgs. We really feel like (with) our back against the wall, the whole world counted us out. Now it’s time to go; now it’s time to keep swinging.
“I never doubted anything. … We’re going to keep proving the world wrong.”
The only thing standing between Detroit and its first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 18 years is the Cleveland Cavaliers, another team that needed seven games to win its first-round series. And with as much resolve and growth as the Pistons have shown to advance, they believe they’re ready to meet the moment again come Game 1 on Tuesday.
“When you’re going through playoff series and these situations, you have to be battle-tested,” Bickerstaff said. “You have to respond, and you have to have the experience of having to do that. To do what we did this series only made us better for the next one. I know a lot of people would’ve liked it to just be easier, but I think it was great for our guys.
“To go through what they went through, to understand what it looks like and where they have to be in order to get it done … we understand that now, and we (will) take that with us to the second round.”