It has not been an ideal calendar year for the Detroit Pistons. The team traded for Blake Griffin in January, but saw his high-flying act turn into too many pull-up jumpers en route to missing the playoffs. Stan Van Gundy was fired as coach and president in May. Their downtown Detroit arena is almost always half-empty. And the Reggie Jackson contract still exists. So it’s actually pretty refreshing to see the Pistons jump out to a 3–0 start this month, the latest victory (133–132) coming over a Ben Simmons-less 76ers squad Tuesday night.
In what continued the trend of absurdly entertaining early regular season games, Detroit and Philly battled into overtime, and traded some ludicrous shots in the extra period.