The Detroit Pistons may have already dropped their third-straight match on Saturday at home against the Boston Celtics, but head coach Stan Van Gundy is still being haunted by a decision he made late in that game.
With only 30 seconds left, Van Gundy chose to sit Andre Drummond, only to see Al Horford grab an offensive rebound and make the game-winning shot with only 1.3 seconds left on the game clock. The 57-year-old bench tactician talked about second-guessing his decision during the post-game interview.
“Had he been in the game, we'd probably get the rebound and we're probably still playing instead of me talking to you.”
“Not that I don't enjoy talking to you guys and everything — but that could have waited another 45 minutes.”
It also added to his woes that he couldn't put him back in the game as no timeout was called by the Celtics.
“They didn't call timeout, so we couldn't get him back on the floor.”
“He was out for the execution of the play. And not that he can't execute it, but just — we've run that play before and Aron's really good at it. As it turned out, quite honestly, I'm not sure Aron's [Baynes] part in it really had a lot to do with it.”
Drummond also gave his take on Van Gundy's decision to bench him late in the game and how he felt while watching the last play unfold.
“It was tough for me to watch. I really wish I could have been out there to try and make a difference on that play. But, coach obviously knows best and the cards didn't fall that way.”
If there's anything positive that Van Gundy and company can take from this experience, it's that he got to understand more the value of Drummond to the team. It's also a good thing that this happened to them early in the season as they still have a lot of games to play to try and turn their fortunes around.
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