Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups got a huge ovation on his return to Detroit. But it was the son of a different Hall of Fame point guard who won the game for the Pistons.
Tim Hardaway Jr. made three three-pointers and scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Pistons erased a 22-point deficit to beat the Blazers, 118-115. Hardaway Jr., whose father made the Hall of Fame two years before Billups in 2022, finished with 26 points as the Pistons won their fourth straight game.
It was a remarkable performance by Hardaway Jr. because of his scoring explosion, including 6-for-9 shooting from three-point range. But it was also memorable because he logged almost no other box score stats. Hardaway Jr. had no assists, grabbed zero rebounds, didn’t shoot free throws, block a shot or get a steal. The lone non-scoring statistic was a single personal foul. Shooters shoot!
Hardaway Jr. and the Pistons ruined a great clutch performance by Portland’s Anfernee Simons, who had 17 points in the final quarter and 36 for the game.
The one player who had a surprisingly quiet fourth quarter was Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, who shot 0-of-5 and scored two points. Cunningham did his work early, putting up 30 points in the first three quarters after scoring 40 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
The Pistons are 7-1 in their last eight games, bringing their record up to .500. In those games, Cunningham is averaging 26.4 points and 8.6 assists. Hardaway Jr. is averaging only 13.9 points in that same stretch, but he’s shooting 42.9 percent on threes, plus a whopping 1.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists.
Billups, who won a title with the Pistons in 2004, got a standing ovation at the Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings game Sunday night. He got another ovation before Monday’s game and a tribute at halftime to celebrate his Hall of Fame induction.
Still, he’d probably sacrifice all the adulation if it meant Hardaway Jr. would have missed just one more of his fourth-quarter shots. Monday night, Hardaway Jr. was Mr. Big Shot.
