DENVER – The game ended as it began – with Blake Griffin missing a shot. Wedged in between was a whole lot of crazy.
It would have gotten even crazier if Griffin’s 3-pointer at the buzzer had forced overtime, a game that would have taken its place with another Pistons-Nuggets matchup in the Mile High City in NBA lore – the 186-184 triple overtime Pistons win in December 1983, the highest-scoring game in league history.
The Pistons looked determined to make it the lowest-scoring game in league history this time around. Griffin missed two point-blank layups on the game’s first possession and that established an unsettling tone for a first quarter in which the Pistons scored all of nine points, making 4 of 29 shots and missing all eight of their 3-pointers.