Jalen Duren had a night he would rather forget, and the Detroit Pistons now have no margin for error. Cleveland beat Detroit 112-103 on Monday in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, tying the series 2-2 and leaving the Pistons to regroup after a loss that featured one of Duren’s toughest playoff performances.
The 22-year-old center finished with eight points, two rebounds, two steals, four turnovers and five fouls. After the game, Duren did not try to soften it. “I’ve just gotta be better, man,” he said. “I have no excuses.” He added that he is “my biggest critic” and said he knows what he has to do to help the team’s success, adding that he is staying on himself no matter the situation.
The performance stood in sharp contrast to what Duren had been giving Detroit for most of the year. He averaged 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in the regular season, finished second in Most Improved Player voting and emerged as one of the main reasons the Pistons became a 60-win team and earned the Eastern Conference’s top seed. He has also been productive in these playoffs, averaging 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds over 11 games, and earlier in May he posted 15 points and 15 rebounds in a Game 7 win over Orlando.
That is part of what makes the current series so striking. In Detroit’s first game against Cleveland, Duren had 11 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. By Game 4, the production had fallen, even as coach J.B. Bickerstaff kept closing games with Duren instead of Paul Reed. Reed was Detroit’s best big in Game 3 on Saturday and again in Game 4, yet Bickerstaff stuck with the younger center late.
The decision carries extra weight because Duren is heading toward restricted free agency this offseason, and the Pistons have viewed him as one of the franchise’s core pieces. Bickerstaff said on May 6 that the team would be together for a while and that it had to do what was best for the group in total, not just react to emotion in the moment. That line now frames the biggest call facing Detroit: whether to keep riding Duren through the rest of the series, or adjust before the playoffs force the issue for them.
For now, Duren says he expects the group to respond. “I know that as a group we’re going to come back stronger,” he said. The next game will show whether Detroit’s confidence in its young center still matches the pressure of the moment.
