Paul Reed didn't enter Game 3 until the Pistons were trailing by eight with five minutes left in the third quarter. He didn't enter Game 4 until the Cavaliers were in the midst of a 22-0 run to start the second half.
Reed was much more effective than Jalen Duren in both games, but played about 38 fewer minutes as the Cavs evened the Eastern Conference semifinals at two games apiece. J.B. Bickerstaff did play Reed more in Game 4 Monday night, but hasn't turned to him in this series unless the Pistons are trailing.
Reed checked into Game 3 with 5:07 remaining in the third quarter and the Pistons down 72-64. He scored four points and grabbed two rebounds to help them cut it to 83-81 entering the fourth, at which point Bickerstaff went back to Duren. The deficit was back to six when Reed re-entered with 9:11 to go. He had seven points, two rebounds and drew two fouls to help the Pistons pull even at 101, then went back to the bench with 4:32 to go. Duren finished out the game. The Cavs won 116-109.
In 9:46 of action, Reed had as many points (11), one fewer rebound (3) and two fewer turnovers (1) than Duren, who played 29:17.
Reed checked into Game 4 with 9:40 left in the third quarter and the Pistons down 62-56, in the middle of Cleveland's blitz out of halftime. He eventually stopped the bleeding with a dunk on a hard drive followed by a three-pointer, but the damage had been done. When he checked out for Duren early in the fourth, the Pistons were down 94-77. Reed didn't come back in the game until it was all but over with 2:48 to go.
In 14 minutes of action, Reed had seven more points (15), two more rebounds (4) and three fewer turnovers (1) than Duren, who played 26:39 -- his fewest of these playoffs. Reed said that he had "the same mindset I have all the time: go out there and try to help my team win. Do whatever is needed."
"I thought P-Reed earned the opportunity to be on the floor," Bickerstaff said after the Pistons' 112-103 loss in Game 4. "He did a great job for us at both ends of the floor, doing the things that we needed him to do, and he deserved the opportunity to play."
As for going back to Duren in the fourth quarter, Bickerstaff said that Duren's impact over the course of this season has earned him some benefit of the doubt. Duren averaged 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and made his first All-Star Game at age 22, but has been a shell of that player through 11 postseason games, averaging 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds.
"You gotta give guys confidence, you gotta give them belief," said Bickerstaff. "He’s accomplished a lot for us, he’s done a lot of things. I still believe that nothing is just given. Things still need to be earned. Again, that’s why P-Reed got the minutes, he earned them. I thought he deserved them. And then you give JD a chance to go back out there and do the things we know he’s capable of. You don’t just give up on guys when they’re having a hard time. That’s why our guys genuinely care for one another, they support one another, and we’ll fight through and figure it out together."
Duren has five games with single-digit points in the playoffs, after having just six throughout the regular season. He has scored fewer than 15 in all but one game in the playoffs, after scoring fewer than 15 in back to back games just twice all season.
"I just gotta be better, man," Duren told reporters in Cleveland after Game 4. "I don’t have no excuses. I’m my biggest critic, I know what I gotta do to be able to contribute to our team and our success, and I’m staying on myself about doing that no matter what the case may be. I got great teammates, great coaching staff. I know as a group we’re going to come back even stronger. I have no doubt about it."
Bickerstaff said his message to Duren revolves around playing with "spirit" and focusing on "the things that you can control."
"Physically, he can dominate a game, whether it’s rebounding, defending, running the floor. Put your emphasis and focus on those things and then the rest of the game will come to you," Bickerstaff said.
Duren said that "every game is like a lesson" for the Pistons' young team: "We’re all growing, we’re all learning, even through losses we’re learning where we need to grow and where we need to get better."
"Obviously you’d rather learn lessons while winning, but honestly, we’re going to grow from this," he said. "This is a team that has been through adversity, this is a team that has seen the bottom and has fought through it. So I have no doubt in my mind that we’re going to come back out and be ourselves."
The question is, can Duren be himself? Or is that player gone for good in these playoffs?
