DETROIT – On a night Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin both topped 30 points, Dwane Casey kept bringing the conversation around to the newest Pistons big man: Thon Maker.
Maker finished with five and five – five points, five stitches. He played 75 seconds in the first half – with Griffin playing the other 1,365 seconds – and that was just long enough to record a spectacular block of Bobby Portis’ dunk attempt and to suffer an ugly gash to his upper lip when Jordan McRae unintentionally head butted him.
After getting his mouth sewn back together, Maker returned to the game in the third quarter, hit a big corner three during an 8-0 Pistons run that turned the game irrevocably their way and won the hearts of his coach and teammates.