Tyrese Burton talks his talk, walks the walk, and then talks some more
In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing that Isaiah Stewart got ejected early in this one.
The hostility was high, the physicality was intense, and the talk was nonstop in the Detroit Pistons 133-119 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.
Stewart delivered a hard shove to Thomas Bryant and was assessed a flagrant 2 and ejected in the second quarter. If Stewart had managed to stay in the game, the way these teams were going at each other, he might have killed someone.
It got so bad that even George Blaha got fed up with Haliburton’s antics. Unfortunately for the Pistons, Haliburton was also able to back up his talk with his play. Halibuton had 30 points and eight assists on the night. His final three with 3:07 to play was followed up with an exaggerated shimmy in an obvious effort to mock Malik Beasley’s signature move.
It was that kind of night.
It was a pugilistic game in action and in words, and the Pacers go the first several punches in early. Indy took a 24-8 lead before the six-minute mark of the first quarter. The Pistons never folded. They delivered plenty of punches back, but were never able to get over the hump.
They would cut the lead to eight, then give up another Pacers run. Then fight all the way back to six, and then give up another Pacers run.
The Pistons simply had zero answers for Pascal Siakim all night. He was hitting 3s when Jalen Duren couldn’t get back up to him on the perimeter, and he dominated inside when he was able to either blow by a recovering Duren or overpower an undersized Tobias Harris.
Detroit had plenty of fight in them, but they didn’t really have any answers. That is especially true on defense. Detroit’s guards couldn’t prevent penetration, and the bigs couldn’t provide adequate help defense.
Cade Cunningham had a nice bounce-back game, scoring 32 points and dishing nine assists. Tobias Harris had a solid game with 19 points and eight rebounds.
But in a definitive fourth quarter, Harris also missed four pretty wide-open 3-pointers. His first miss from deep in the fourth could have cut Indy’s lead to three. On the subsequent possession, the Pacers got a four-point play off of a Myles Turner behind the line and a JB Bickerstaff technical foul.
Harris’ second missed three could have cut the deficit to five. On the subsequent possession, Ben Shepphard hit a three to stretch Indy’s lead to 11.
It was that kind of game.
The loss drops the Pistons below .500. Their long road trip is over and going 2-3 isn’t the worst thing in the world. They get a six-game homestand to hopefully get back into the winning column several times before the All-Star break.