DETROIT – Seven possessions. In a preseason game. Less than five minutes.
That’s the sum total the Pistons will wind up getting this season out of the lineup Dwane Casey envisioned closing games when he wanted to field his best offensive unit, a lineup rich in scoring options, shooting and pick-and-roll savants.
It came back on Oct. 9 to finish the third quarter of the second preseason game. Dallas was the night’s opponent.
The Mavericks led by five points when Casey swapped out Tony Snell for Derrick Rose with 4:32 to play in the third quarter, giving the Pistons the lineup that brought Casey’s whiteboard to life: Rose, Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and Blake Griffin fanned out across the perimeter with Andre Drummond roaming the middle to set screens and corral rebounds without a crowd to contest them amid a defense stretched to its limits by the firepower arrayed against it.