DETROIT – It shouldn’t have mattered all that much. Maybe it was merely coincidence that you could trace the 180-degree swing in momentum directly to it. But when J.J. Redick converted a bad Pistons turnover – an errant backcourt pass off of a sideline-out-of-bounds play – into a 3-pointer two minutes into the third quarter, the game irrevocably turned.
The Pistons – missing three key players in Reggie Bullock, Ish Smith and Stanley Johnson – led by 15 at the moment and Philadelphia, playing without Joel Embiid, looked complacent and vulnerable.
But 30 seconds after the Pistons held a 15-point lead and the ball, the lead was down to nine after Jimmy Butler made the Pistons pay for a missed shot and lax transition defense with another triple.