Josh Smith's best game as a Detroit Piston was an afterthought late in OT loss to ...
AUBURN HILLS -- Josh Smith was brought here on a rich free-agent contract to win games like this for the Detroit Pistons, and when the crowd dispersed Sunday, there was some sense that they didn't let him finish his job.
Smith had 31 points and seven rebounds in his best game since coming to Detroit, but was not an offensive focal point in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Pistons melted down late in a 111-109 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Damian Lillard's 14-footer with one-tenth of a second remaining in overtime clinched it for the Blazers (21-4), the Western Conference leaders.
The Pistons had plenty of late-game problems, perhaps most notably defensive rebounding.
But only slightly less noteworthy -- if at all -- was their own change in design, and going away from Smith after he was 12 of 16 from the floor through three quarters.
He took one more shot, which he made, after three quarters of abusing Nicolas Batum with post moves or off the dribble, which created an array of easy baskets.
Chauncey Billups, the elder statesman and conscience of this team, once again expressed concerned about the Pistons' late-game failures, and said not forcing offense through Smith in the fourth quarter and overtime was a mistake.
'He was 13 for 17 and I think that even if he didn't make another field goal, he should have been 13 for 22, 13 for 23,' Billups said. 'We should have kept going to him and let him cool down. Maybe he would have stayed hot. The course of the game, things just kind of changed. But I agree, in hindsight, we should have rolled with 'Smoove' the whole way.'
The Pistons (11-14) wasted a chance at a huge home win.
'The game was pretty much won but we found a way to not win,' Smith said.
He said the game reminded him of some during his early days with the Atlanta Hawks, when the team had to learn to close games.
'If this doesn't sting,' Smith said, 'I don't know what does.'
Smith didn't express any displeasure with the play-calling or execution in the fourth quarter, save that the Pistons 'didn't make enough plays to win the basketball game.'
Rodney Stuckey made a 20-footer to force overtime at 99-99 after the Pistons blew the lead and fell behind. He and Brandon Jennings took 15 of the Pistons' 28 field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter and overtime. Stuckey was 3 of 7. Jennings was 2 of 8.
Smith got one more shot and no more post-up opportunities against Batum, even though he said he does 'feel dominant down there sometimes,' and agreed that his interior matchups against small forwards are an untapped advantage of the Pistons' jumbo front line.
'I think that it will be a little bit more exploited from here on out,' Smith said, 'but all I can do is just control what I can touch and not worry about the rest.'
The Pistons' other major problem was running into a team that seemed perfectly comfortable flipping into urgent mode withe the game on the line.
The Blazers (21-4) had eight offensive rebounds and an 18-6 advantage on second-chance points in the fourth quarter and overtime against one of the NBA's premier rebounding teams.
'That is disappointing because that's how they got in the game,' Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks said. 'That's how they won the game, pretty much.'
Cheeks noted the Pistons missed several shots from near the rim in the fourth quarter and overtime, 'that we had made throughout the game up until that point.'
The man who made the most shots throughout the game got just one shot, though.
Billups noted that Smith's offensive outburst -- his previous high as a Piston was 25 points -- was a product of not settling for any bad shots. Even Smith's two missed 3-pointers were in rhythm.
'He took all good shots,' Billups said. 'He took advantage of the mismatches that he had. And he played a great basketball game. Before that, I mean, he settled for a lot of threes floating around the perimeter. So he's learning, I think, how to play at that spot, as well.'
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