Entering Friday’s game, Pistons center Andre Drummond was having an All-Star caliber start to the season, averaging 18.1 points and a league-leading 17.8 rebounds per game.
The Thunder’s defense-by-committee on Drummond, spearheaded by Steven Adams, held the 6-foot-11, 279-pounder to table scraps as he battled foul trouble all night.
The Thunder started Adams on Drummond, and Adams struck first with a block on one of Drummond’s first forays into the lane. Adams played Drummond to a stalemate in the first half, and finished the game with eight points and a season-high 13 rebounds.
Drummond was held to 15 points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes.
“Those four guys were phenomenal in the front court,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of Adams, Enes Kanter, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison. “They didn’t really allow Drummond a lot of deep post catches. They really did a good job of keeping him off the backboard. We did not give up a lot of second-chance opportunities.”
When it wasn’t Adams’ turn, Kanter played Drummond straight up, as well. Kanter spent stretches of the fourth quarter interchanging with Ibaka on the Pistons big man before Adams came in at 4:25 to close out the game.
More importantly for Donovan, the Thunder kept Drummond off the offensive glass. Drummond finished with more personal fouls (4) than offensive boards (3). Adams led the Thunder with four offensive rebounds.
“It wasn’t so much about the total number or rebounds, but it was really about the offensive rebounds, and they did a good job of getting those,” Donovan said.
Drummond is a big reason the Pistons were averaging a league-best 47.5 rebounds per game coming into Oklahoma City, with the Thunder was right behind them at 47.1. In contrast to the Thunder, however, the Pistons only have one player averaging more than seven rebounds a game. As of Friday, no player in the NBA was pulling down a high percentage of his team’s rebounds (26.5) than Drummond.
The Thunder had three players – Adams, Durant (13 rebounds) and Andre Roberson (eight) – outrebounded Drummond on the night.
DURANT STILL RESPECTS JACKSON
Former Thunder guard Reggie Jackson didn’t leave Oklahoma City on the best of terms.
Kevin Durant wasn’t afraid to say it.
“It was tough. I didn’t like some of the stuff he said in the media and how he went about it,” Durant said Friday before the Thunder’s 103-87 win over Jackson’s Detroit Pistons. “… But at the end of the day you’ve got to respect a guy who wants that opportunity and I can appreciate a guy who wants that opportunity.”
The Pistons were able to offer Jackson the opportunity he wanted to become a starting point guard, and rewarded him with a five-year, $80 million contract in July. Jackson was dealt to the Detroit in February after not being able to agree with the Thunder on a contract extension and following a report that his agent requested a trade out of OKC. The trade landed the Thunder Kanter, as well asSteve Novak, Kyle Singler and D.J. Augustin.
Jackson, who called Friday night’s tilt against the Thunder “just another game,” was asked if he had any regrets about how his tenure in Oklahoma City ended.
“I don’t look back to last year,” Jackson said. When asked if there was regret that the Thunder didn’t get over the top, the one thing Jackson said he does look back on is “four years and I don’t have a ring.
Source: http://m.newsok.com/article/5463434
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