Look who came in from the cold.
Jalen Duren, shouldering the weight of disappointment for so long he was actually starting to look shorter, suddenly emerged with an action hero’s urgency – and just in time. In a do-or-die Game 6 on Friday, May 15, in Cleveland, Duren was Superman out of the phone booth. The Hulk busting through Bruce Banner’s clothes.
He elevated for rebounds. Soared for blocks. He spun – he spun? – and banked in layups. He lost Jarrett Allen on a crossover dribble, drove past James Harden for a layup, then gave the Michael Jordan tongue wag on the way down the court.
Oh, and by the way, Duren finally took feeds cleanly, put the ball on the floor with purpose, and did not once dribble it away or fumble it out of bounds.
In other words, he became what he had long been and went back to his own future, a promising giant collecting 15 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and a steal in just 27 minutes.
As a result, the Detroit Pistons are not just coming home for a Game 7 on Sunday (8 p.m., Prime Video) with a spot in the Eastern Conference finals on the line. They are bringing an awakened colossus with them.
“My confidence never wavered in myself,” the 22-year-old Duren told the media after the Pistons staved off elimination for the fourth time this postseason, 115-94. “I know who I am. I’ll never forget who I am. I know what I can do. I know what I can be.”
The Big is back.
It’s two for fun in the paint
What Duren can be – a rim protector, a shot-blocker, a put-back force and a finisher – was on full display Friday night. Which meant what the Pistons can be was also on full display. There’s a reason the previous five game in this series were all settled by 10 points or less, yet Detroit won this one by 21. For much of this series, Detroit seemed to be playing with one of Duren’s arms tied behind his back. The one that actually catches easy feeds. The one that knows it’s attached to a body that should dominate almost anyone out there.
Duren seemed in a fog most of this series. People speculated that the moment was too big, or that he was thinking too much about a potential jackpot contract that was getting smaller with each subpar performance. The low point came in Game 5, when Duren seemed so out of sync, he was benched for the fourth quarter and overtime.
Duren, for his part, did what any young man does when the world seems to be turning on them.
He spoke to his mother.
“She gave me strength. She always gives me strength,” Duren told the media. “She’s my backbone.”
It also helped that his teammates never wavered in their confidence.
“I kept telling him, especially after the last game, keep your energy and spirt right,” Daniss Jennkins said, “and God’s gonna bless you.”
Well, thank you, Lord. Because by Game 6 of a series, teams usually have no new tricks left. But when your old trick hasn’t been working, “new” is a relative term. Duren’s game on Friday night was like finding the lost keys to your sports car so you can stop borrowing your spouse’s clunker.
With Duren’s excellence returning, Detroit discovered a potent big man combination, using the ever-steady Paul Reed as Duren’s backup to keep the needle in the red. Reed had a career playoff-high 17 points, six rebounds and a block in just 16 minutes on Friday night.
You put those two performances together, and the middle of the floor just became a dangerous place for opponents to be. And a potential way for Detroit to capture this seemingly endless war in Game 7.
“[Reed] has done a great job, rebounding the ball… flying around, going way outside his area,” Cade Cunningham said. “He’s super mobile for a big. So I think that poses threats to other bigs. He’s got great touch around the rim. Great feel for the game. And, I mean, he’s just a madman. He wants to get the job done every time.”
Combine the madman and the starting big man Friday night and you had 32 points, 17 rebounds, four blocks and only five missed shots.
The Pistons will win a lot of games with that kind of center production.
The Big is back.
A new plot in a long-running book
Look who else came in from the cold Friday night.
Duncan Robinson missed Game 5 with back issues, an announcement that came so late it caught everyone outside of the Detroit locker room off guard. Without their 3-point sharpshooter, the Pistons missed two-thirds of their 3-point attempts in Game 5. They also struggled to space the floor, and missed Robinson’s passing and spurts of disruptive defense.
On Friday night, Robinson came off the bench, something he hadn’t done in 88 previous games as a Piston. No problem. Three minutes after entering the game, late in the first quarter, he hit a 26-foot 3-pointer. And in the third quarter, he entered the game with the Cavaliers trimming the Pistons lead and the Rocket Arena crowd urging them on.
When Cleveland closed the gap to eight, Robinson banged a 25-footer to push it back to 11.
When Cleveland narrowed the gap to seven, Robinson hit a 3 to push it back to 10.
He then found Reed on a beautiful pass for a layup. Then he grabbed a defensive rebound and found Reed again for another layup, and a 12-point margin.
The Cavs never really threatened again. And once more, the Pistons may have just discovered a new plot line very late in the book.
Starting Jenkins – instead of Robinson – gives them speed, decent 3-point shooting (Jenkins was 3-for-7 beyond the arc in Game 6) and someone else to bring the ball up to allow Cunningham some freedom from double-teams. It also allows Robinson to be a weapon at a different point in the game.
“His ability to come in off the bench, give a spark, knock down shots, to keep our offense kind of ticking versus second-unit guys,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, “we just thought it was the right thing to do.”
More rotation than Cirque Du Soleil
It was also a remarkable display of depth. The Pistons’ bench outscored the Cavs’ bench, 47-19, on Friday. That’s nuts.
But while the Cavs have pretty much relied on the same guys – Harden, Donovan Mitchell., Evan Mobley, with 3-point daggers from Max Strus and Sam Merrill – night after night the Pistons keep rotating like the cast of a Cirque Du Soleil show. I mean, Marcus Sasser played 18 minutes in an elimination playoff game! Caris LeVert played 29! They averaged 12 and 19.2, respectively, during the regular season.
At one point, Bickerstaff even went with a four-guard lineup. In a game where the season could have ended? That shows confidence.
“We just tell each other, ‘Stay ready, stay ready,’” Jenkins said.
They’ll need to tell each other one more time Sunday night. Only a fool would be certain of the outcome of this Game 7, given the Cavs had won three straight entering Friday, and the Pistons will be on their fifth elimination game of this postseason.
But this much is undeniable: The Pistons have proven themselves amazingly resilient, unconcerned about outside voices and willing to dance with who brung ‘em. And with Duren and Robinson coming in from the cold, it just got a lot warmer at Little Caesars Arena.
The Big is Back.
Now we’ll see how they handle the Biggest Moment.
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Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom: Pistons prove anything is possible with The Big on menu
Reporting by Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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