Pistons Clamp Down Late Again, Ride Fourth-Quarter Defense to Win Over Suns
DETROIT - With under a minute left and the Suns pressing, Jalen Duren slid around a high screen from Grayson Allen and swatted Oso Ighodaro’s layup off the glass like he was sending a message. It was Duren’s second block of the night, and it capped a masterclass defensive fourth quarter that helped the Pistons edge Phoenix, 108-105, on Thursday night.
Duren finished with a monster 16-point, 18-rebound double-double, but it was the collective defensive effort in the final frame that told the story. The Suns managed just 15 points in the fourth - their lowest-scoring quarter of the season - and that’s becoming a trend when teams face Detroit late.
Since the calendar flipped to 2026, the Pistons have turned fourth quarters into a defensive clinic. Over their last six games, they own the best fourth-quarter defensive rating in the league at 91.2.
They’re holding opponents to just 22.3 points in the final 12 minutes during that stretch, while limiting them to 38.1% shooting from the field and 28.3% from three. That’s second and third in the NBA, respectively.
It’s not just a hot streak - it’s becoming their identity. Under head coach J.B.
Bickerstaff, Detroit has leaned hard into its length, athleticism, and commitment to physical defense. And while Thursday’s win nearly slipped away thanks to shaky free-throw shooting, the Pistons’ defense once again slammed the door when it mattered most.
“We’ve got Ausar Thompson, Ron Holland, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren… just size, length, athletes,” Cade Cunningham said postgame, glancing around the locker room. “We’ve got better defenders than most teams. It’s hard to score on a group that’s this locked in.”
The Pistons weren’t perfect - far from it. They shot just 28.1% from deep and 62.2% from the free-throw line.
Cunningham, their leader, had an off night, going 3-of-16 from the field. And they turned the ball over 17 times.
But the defense? That was dialed in.
The second half is where things really shifted. Grayson Allen torched Detroit for 21 first-half points, hitting five of his 10 threes.
But the Pistons made adjustments. They started going over screens instead of under, fought harder through traffic, and made sure Allen felt every contest.
He still finished with 33, but only 12 came after halftime - and he hit just two of his final 10 attempts from deep.
Thompson and Holland shared the assignment of chasing Allen, and both brought the kind of energy that’s becoming a staple of this young Pistons squad. As a team, Detroit looked far more connected defensively in the second half, and especially in the fourth.
So what changed?
“We started playing Pistons defense,” Bickerstaff said. “In the second half - especially the fourth - we got stingy.
We were physical, we executed our coverages, we communicated, and we rebounded. That’s the difference.”
That physicality is wearing teams down. It’s not flashy, but it’s effective. And it’s giving Detroit a real edge, even when the offense isn’t clicking.
“The physicality, it wears (opponents) down,” Stewart said. “We’re very capable of doing the same thing over and over. I feel like that really wears on teams.”
Offensively, it was a balanced effort for Detroit. Six players scored in double figures, led by Duncan Robinson’s 19 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep.
Jaden Ivey added 15 off the bench in just 17 minutes, hitting three of his five attempts from beyond the arc. But again, the Pistons won this game with defense - not shot-making.
That kind of fourth-quarter dominance has helped Detroit climb to 29 wins on the season and maintain a 4.5-game cushion over the Boston Celtics atop the Eastern Conference. The next step? Extending that defensive intensity across all four quarters.
For now, though, the Pistons are proving that when the game tightens up, they know exactly who they are.
“That’s who we are, we’re an elite defensive team,” Bickerstaff said. “Tonight wasn’t going to be easy.
But I give our guys a ton of credit for sticking with it, like they always do. Lifting each other up, supporting each other, everybody taking advantage of their minutes.”
In a league where offense often grabs the headlines, the Pistons are showing that defense - gritty, physical, relentless defense - still wins games. Especially when it shows up when it matters most.