The great star duos don't just play well at the same time. They make one another better. And when you have a point guard who understands how to run the pick and roll and an athletic monster of a big man who knows how to roll, you can do some serious damage. That's what's going on in Detroit with Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond.
Sunday night, after trailing by 18 points in the third quarter, Jackson scored 26 points while Drummond grabbed 10 rebounds as he finished with 29 points and 27 rebounds. The Pistons stormed all the way back, outscoring the Trail Blazers 41-11 in the final frame for 120-103 victory. That's a 35-point swing, and it was marvelous to behold.
Drummond now has three 20-point, 20-rebound games. The record in a season was set in the early 90's by Kevin Willis for Atlanta with 11. Drummond is over a fourth of the way there just six games into the season. He's been a monster, and his offensive rebounds have a huge impact not only for himself, but for his teammates.
PUTBACK DRAFT
Drummond is scoring 7.2 points per game on putbacks alone, according to Synergy Sports. And the impact of that threat, once he establishes himself, forces the defense to adjust how the cover Drummond and Jackson in the pick and roll. Watch what happens when Mason Plumlee tries to aggressively pick up Jackson coming off the pick and roll:
Meyers Leonard is switched out on the perimeter so he can't help, leaving the smaller wings trying to box out the Bull God, Drummond. He feasts on those situations. With Drummond in that set, you don't have to just guard the lob from Jackson or the pocket pass, you have to start boxing out Drummond effectively at the free throw line and hope the rebound goes short. Otherwise, he's just going to pound you into oblivion. And he did:
SPACE EVADER
Jackson has taken his game to an entirely new level this season. (A level, I might add, I was skeptical he would ever reach when the Pistons re-signed him for big money this summer. He's been fantastic and works perfectly in the Pistons' system.)
Jackson is shooting 50 percent on pull-up 3-pointers this season, shooting with more confidence. He got red-hot vs. the Blazers and just kept pouring it on in that 26-point fourth quarter:
A big part in getting him going, though, was Drummond. The Blazers in the fourth quarter had been so hammered by Drummond's rebounding that they started committing to keeping him off the glass. That opened up things for Jackson coming off the pick.
Compare this with the other clip on Drummond's offensive rebound above:
Look at the space Jackson has after he gets past Lillard, and notice the spacing of the guys on the perimeter in coach Stan Van Gundy's spread pick and roll.
Jackson is patient in the pick and roll, and that allowed him to get past defenders for his floaters.
The Blazers were also terrible defensively, as you would imagine, in giving up the 41 points in the fourth. But much of that was the result of the damage Drummond has caused, even as the Pistons had gone down 18. The ability of the Pistons to spread the floor with Ersan Ilyasova at power forward pays huge dividends in keeping the other big out as you see above. And Jackson, of course, is doing most of the work, using his touch and instincts.
He also got supernova hot. I mean, come on:
The Pistons still have issues. Their defense has been great but has shown a few signs of struggle, their overall shooting is poor (20th in effective field goal percentage even after Sunday's blistering of the nets), and they remain reliant on foul rate. But Jackson and Drummond have a net rating of 18.8 points per 100 possessions. That's the same number that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson share when they are on the floor together.
With Jackson and Drummond emerging as a true superstar combo that can work off of one another, there's real reason to believe this 5-1 start for the Pistons could lead to a real chance at the playoffs this season.
