Detroit — If this is who they are, this is where it had to start.
Tied at the half in Game 2, and trailing in their first-round series after a playoff-opening dud, the top-seeded Pistons knew what was required Wednesday night: It was time to defend their turf.
And who better to throw a block party in Detroit than Isaiah Stewart?
“I mean, he’s the heart of what we do every single day,” his coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, said after Stewart and the Pistons had reasserted themselves with a dominant second-half effort and a 98-83 victory over the Orlando Magic.
And at the heart of this win, which featured a mind-blowing 30-3 run to start the third quarter for the home team, was this team’s identity.
“We just played defense — it’s that simple,” Bickerstaff said. “When we play defense at the level we’re capable of, it triggers everything for us.”
Fittingly, though, it was Stewart who provided the finishing touch in Game 2, adding a pair of emphatic blocks that erased dunk attempts — and any doubt about how the night would end.
The first came right after Stewart checked into the game midway through the third quarter, with the rout already underway. Jalen Suggs came off a hard screen and attacked the basket intent on sending a message. But he found himself on the receiving end of one instead, as Stewart timed his leap perfectly — he almost always does — and practically spiked the ball to the court.
“I’m not going to tell you my secrets, but it’s just something you gotta have an edge for,” Stewart said later, smiling, when asked to explain how it is that a 6-foot-8 forward with a modest vertical leap can be one of the NBA’s best rim protectors. “You gotta be OK with putting your body on the line. And I love it, because when you meet someone at the rim, it says a lot.”
He had even more to say in the fourth quarter, when Paolo Banchero came flying into the paint with both arms extended for a two-hand dunk. Once again, it was the first possession after Stewart had subbed in off the bench. And once more, he made his presence felt immediately.
Stewart came across the lane as the help defender, leaped to meet Banchero at the rim and smacked the ball away with his left hand this time. And after the referee initially whistled him for a foul on the play, Stewart knew better. He started twirling his finger to tell the bench to call for a review, and after watching the replay on the scoreboard, Bickerstaff did just that as the crowd roared.
It was a quick review, a clear block – the 11th of the night for the Pistons – and one more reminder of what this team was missing in last year’s playoff scrap against the New York Knicks.
Stewart had to watch that series after trying gamely to play through a knee injury in Game 1 at Madison Square Garden. It was a huge blow to the Pistons, and an agonizing feeling for the team’s longest-tenured player, who was part of Troy Weaver’s first draft class in Detroit in 2020.
“It’s great to be healthy,” said Stewart, who also missed nearly a month down the stretch this season while nursing a calf injury. “It’s great to just be available for my teammates. I want to be out there. I want to be in the war. I want to be in the battle. And I’m doing everything I can to help propel us forward, in any way I can.”
The way he does it, of course, is the way the Pistons’ past champions did it. With a lunch-pail mentality and a toughness that leaves a mark on every game, even if the stat sheet doesn’t always say so.
“I’m willing to lay my body on the line to make those plays,” said Stewart, who finished Game 2 with 10 points and five rebounds in just 15 minutes. “For the energy to shift, to give us something, and for my teammates and coaches to feed off of it.”
The crowd, too. Including that silver-haired Hall of Famer, Ben Wallace, the anchor of the Goin’ to Work champs in 2004, who was sitting along the baseline again Wednesday night. And Rick Mahorn, the baddest of the Bad Boys, who was over on the sideline working as a radio analyst. The “OGs,” as Stewart calls a couple of his Motor City mentors.
“I’m sure they appreciate it,” said Stewart, who gave a quick salute to Wallace after another block on Banchero in Game 1. “You know, I’ve been getting those blocks on dunks and I’ve been seeing Big Ben stand up and applaud for that. I know he appreciates that defense.”
His coach appreciates it more than he can express, at times. And after Wednesday’s win finally ended a franchise home playoff drought that dates back to 2008, Bickerstaff talked about the “heavy burden” he sees Stewart carrying for this team. “Carrying our identity” is how the coach put it.
“Every time he steps on the floor, he has to go out and do that,” Bickerstaff said. “And people continue to try to test him. He’s done a great job of just protecting the rim, being there for his teammates, anchoring our defense, and buying in and sacrificing of himself just for the better of the team. So that’s who Stew is. That’s how important he is to us and how much we value him.”
Stewart, for his part, shrugs at the idea that this is a weight he has to bear. Even after waiting the first five years of his career to experience the kind of success these Pistons are finally enjoying.
“I don’t gotta fake it,” he said. “I’m cut from that cloth. And everybody that knows me knows that’s just who I am. So I don’t feel that way because it’s just who I am. And I enjoy carrying the identity for this team, because that what I was drafted here for.”
And on nights like this, he’s happy to remind everyone of the same thing.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
@JohnNiyo
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Niyo: Stewart, Pistons send a message with block party in Detroit
Reporting by John Niyo, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
