The Detroit Pistons had their game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Little Caesars Arena well in hand, scoring 40 points in the first quarter and leading by 25 points at one point.
They weren’t able to get the win. Los Angeles came back for a stunning 111-101 victory, sending the Pistons to their locker room to a chorus of boos from the frustrated fans. Their record is now 22-29 after having once been in 4th place in the Eastern Conference in early December.
According to Fox Sports Detroit, the loss matched the biggest blown lead in the last 20 years for the Pistons. Coincidently, it was also the biggest comeback in Clippers history.
Bench player Lou Williams scored 16 consecutive points for the Clippers and led all scorers with 39. Another eye opening stat? He outscored the Pistons by himself in the fourth quarter (18-14). What’s worse, the Clippers bench scored 80 points.
“Devastating,” responded head coach Dwane Casey afterwards. “We played as good of basketball as we could play. We were like two different teams; I thought it was some of our best basketball in the first half…..Until we develop those winning habits for four quarters, not two quarters, we are going to be feeling disappointed a lot.”
Forward Blake Griffin certainly was disappointed after the game, calling it a “bad, bad, bad loss.”
“Down the stretch in the third, we had some turnovers,” he said. “When that happens, we just have to sit down and play defense on the other end and we didn’t do that, so we missed some shots and didn’t get stops.”
Meanwhile, his former coach Doc Rivers was certainly happy with the way the game turned out after an ugly first half for his Clippers.
“This is great, as good as it gets for us,” Rivers said. “I thought our guys just hung in there and kept fighting……when your bench scores 80, you’re probably going to win the game, and that’s what happened.”
The Pistons will host the Western Conference leading Denver Nuggets on Monday night at Little Caesars Arena.
