EAST LANSING- The Phoenix Suns and the Detroit Pistons travel into East Lansing to play their second preseason game of the 2024-25 season.
The owner of the Phoenix Suns, Mat Ishbia brought the team into East Lansing to play at his Alma Mater, and the Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff appreciated the opportunity to play in East Lansing.
“It’s pretty impressive,” said Bickerstaff, “I believe there are four owners from the state of Michigan in the NBA. Two guys you know, Tom and Mat from Michigan State. Have a love for the school and the university you know for itself, but also the state of Michigan. That’s a great experience for us to be a part of.”
The Pistons this season are looking to build up a new identity, working on ways to be better than the 28-straight loss squad from last season.
“We are still building,” said Bickerstaff. “We spent those four or five days in practice, went out, evaluated against competition. You go home and study it to see what areas you need to keep working on and where you can find improvement.”
The Pistons started this season 1-0, winning handsomely against a top-three eastern conference team in the Milwaukee Bucks, taking them down 120-87. Jaden Ivey led the team in scoring against the Bucks, scoring 22 points on 75 percent shooting.
Detroit started the game playing fast, scoring, and going up early against Phoenix with center Jalen Duren leading the charge. Duren in the first quarter scored five points and put the Pistons up early. Duren ended the night leading the team in scoring with 17 points on 6-9 shooting,
Young Pistons star shooting guard Jaden Ivey led the squad in scoring in the first with nine points and gained the lead 13-12 off of a fadeaway jumper.
The Pistons did hold the Suns down, but that didn’t last long. Phoenix All-Star forward Kevin Durant put on a scoring outburst for 10 points in the first quarter, leading the Suns up eight in East Lansing, 39-31.
Both the Pistons and Suns started the second quarter slow, with both squads missing quality jumpers until Jalen Duren caught the alley-oop and threw one down to get the Pistons back in it.
Detroit continued to chip down the deficit to five with another Duren slam and a shooting guard Malk Beasley three-pointer, with only 5:34 to go in the half.
Duren dominated down the stretch for Detroit, tearing the roof off the Breslin Center with another slam, which made it 45-42, getting the Pistons within three.
Sloppy mistakes from Phoenix gave Detroit the chance to take the lead, but the Pistons didn’t hold it down. Small forward Royce O’Neal hit his second three of the night after a Piston turnover to make it 50-44.
O’Neale didn’t stop there, hitting another three down the stretch with 1:30 seconds to go to close out the half.
Pistons’ Ivey and Duren carried the load in the first half, but the team only shot 25 percent from three-point land, as the Suns shot 34.8 percent from three, and nearly 45 percent from the field.
The Pistons did not shoot well beyond the arc, failing to live up to last season, where they shot nearly 35 percent from three.
The Pistons came out and dismantled the Suns’ lead, with the three-pointer from veteran guard Tim Hardaway Jr. put Detroit only down by four.
Ivey and Duren sparked the offense all game long for the Pistons, with both having mastered the pick-and-roll situation. Ivy rolled off the screen from Duren, and lobbed it up for Duren’s second dunk of the half, only trailing by two with nearly nine minutes to go.
Phoenix showed why they are a true contender in the west, going on an 8-0 run with two free throws and two threes from guard Tyus Jones and Durant extending the lead 67 to 58.
The Suns continue to run away from the Pistons capitalizing on threes from former Wizards guard Bradley Beal, and Booker ending the third quarter up 84-66.
Pistons Rookie small forward Ron Holland showed out in the fourth quarter. Holland expressed his aggressiveness and athleticism, by being physical on defense and scoring by slashing to the rim.
Holland got his first points of the quarter on a thunderous jam sparking the Piston crowd, he is set to have a bright future ahead of himself in Detroit.
“I thought Ron was great,” said Bickerstaff. “Our thing with Ron is just who you are, and you’ll start to learn the NBA. But right now he needs to focus on being who he is and how he best fits and helps this team.”
The Pistons tried to draw closer to the Suns’, but it was to no avail as Phoenix closed out the preseason game in East Lansing. They ended the night shooting 41% from the field and 30 percent from three.
The Suns won 105 to 97 in front of an excited Lansing-grown crowd. The Pistons have three more preseason games before they home to take on the Indiana Pacers for the regular season opening night.
