USA Today

Pistons Rookie Motivated After Darius Garland’s Dominant Night

Originally posted on FanNation All Pistons
By Justin Grasso | Last updated 3/2/24

The Detroit Pistons might’ve faced a Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland Cavaliers team on Friday night, but that didn’t mean it was going to be an easy night in the office for the rebuilding franchise.

Being that the Cavaliers are one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference at this point in the year, they have proven to be a handful to opposing defenses night in and night out, no matter who is on the court.

With Mitchell out due to knee soreness, the Cavs leaned on their starting guard Darius Garland to take care of business. For Pistons rookie Ausar Thompson, it was a tall task to guard the veteran, who has established himself as one of the league’s rising stars.

At first, the Pistons held Garland in check. In nine minutes of action, he attempted just two shots from the field, going scoreless. Then in the second quarter, the young veteran caught fire from deep.

“He’s already fast, and they were sending a high screen [for Garland],” Ausar Thompson told reporters after Friday’s game. “It was already a miscommunication.”

In the second quarter alone, Garland made his biggest contribution of the night by making six of his 11 shots from the field. All of his successful attempts came from beyond the arc, where he launched seven shots in eight minutes. Garland scored 18 of the Cavs’ 31 second-quarter points. By halftime, Cleveland’s lead went from 11 to 15.

From that point on, the Cavaliers had a big enough cushion to take care of business in the end. After Garland wrapped up the night with a game-high 29 points, Thompson was critical of himself, noting that seeing the stat line coming from the guy he guarded had motivated him for the next matchup.

“I would say we were little too far back, but he was hitting some tough ones, all credit to him,” Thompson said. “We’re going to try and not let that happen next time. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like feeling like my man was scoring that much, especially in one quarter. Next time, I just got to work harder.”

While Garland’s offensive contributions were too much for Detroit’s defense, Thompson had a decent solo outing on both ends of the floor by scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds while becoming one of two players from Detroit to be in the plus column after the game.

Yet, seeing Garland’s game-changing performance will remain on Thompson’s mind moving forward. The Pistons and the Cavs wrapped up their regular season series on Friday night, but Thompson and his team will be back out on the floor for a Sunday night matchup against the Orlando Magic this weekend.