Ex-Piston Jerami Grant scores 36 against Detroit to lead Blazers to 135-106 blowout win

PORTLAND — Monday night was a family reunion for the Detroit Pistons. The Portland Trail Blazers are led by Pistons great Chauncey Billups, who was hired as their head coach during the 2021 offseason. And Jerami Grant, who signed with the Pistons in 2020 and led the team in scoring for two seasons, was traded to Portland this past offseason.

In the end, the Pistons didn’t have much to celebrate. Grant scored a game-high 36 points against his former team to lead the Blazers to a 135-106 blowout win over the Pistons at Moda Center. After a competitive start to the game, Detroit fizzled out and was outscored 39-25 in the second quarter and 41-30 in the third quarter.

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Turnovers were an issue for the Pistons, as they coughed the ball up 20 times against just 16 assists. They were without Killian Hayes, who completed his three-game suspension on Monday following an altercation with Orlando Magic big man Mo Wagner last week. Marvin Bagley III exited the game in the second quarter with a right hand injury.

Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pistons with 21 points, Alec Burks scored 19 points and Hamidou Diallo scored a season-high 16 points. Jaden Ivey (13 points, 3-for-11 shooting) also reached double figures, though he struggled from the floor and turned the ball over five times. Anfernee Simons added 30 points for Portland.

Grant goes off against former team

Pistons fans are well-acquainted with Grant’s ability to score the ball. He led the Pistons in scoring during his two seasons in Detroit, and set a career-high of 22.3 points per game in 2020-21. After thriving as a role player with the Denver Nuggets, he left for Detroit to expand his game and prove that he had untapped potential as a go-to offensive player.

It’s paid off for him, as he’s emerged as the second-best player for a Blazers team firmly in the Western Conference playoff hunt. The Pistons, nor the rest of the league, have seen this version of Grant. The 6-foot-8 forward entered Monday averaging 22 points, but on significantly better efficiency compared to his time with the Pistons. He’s hitting 48.4% of his shots and a career-high 43.9% of his 3-pointers, and has benefited from being able to play off of a superstar in Damian Lillard. Rather than being accounted for at all times as a first option, he now has the luxury of picking his spots as a No. 2.

But it was Grant, not Lillard, who buried the Pistons. Grant scored 32 of his 36 points through the first three quarters, in efficient fashion. He completed a 4-point play with 7:33 remaining in the third quarter to extend Portland’s lead to 19, and then followed that with a midrange jumper at the seven-minute mark. At that point in the game, Grant had 30 points on 10-for-14 overall shooting in just 21 minutes of action. The Pistons didn’t have an answer for him.

His full game was on display, as he hit shots from 3, at the rim and at the line — his preferred area of operation. Grant played just two minutes and 36 seconds in the final period, and finished the night with just under 28 total minutes played.

Pistons fall apart in 2nd quarter

For 18 minutes, it was a competitive game. A deep 3-pointer by Damian Lillard midway through the 2nd quarter extended Portland’s lead to six, 44-38. The high-scoring guard only had six points at that point, and the 3 teased a potential scoring eruption. But the Pistons answered back. A high-effort possession by Duren led to a series of tips before he finished the play with a dunk to cap a 12-2 Pistons run that gave them a four-point lead. Ivey knocked down a pair of free throws with 3:06 remaining before halftime to push their lead to 52-46.

That ended up being Detroit’s final points of the half. Portland closed the second quarter with a 15-0 run to enter halftime with a 61-52 lead, and then scored five more unanswered points to open the third quarter and stretch their run to 20-0, and lead to 66-52. In the 2nd quarter, Detroit shot 8-24 overall (33.3%) and 1-for-5 from 3. Meanwhile, Portland shot 15-21 overall (71.4%) and 4-for-6 from 3.

Detroit has been prone to giving up extreme runs in recent weeks. Allowing Portland to score 20 straight points in roughly five minutes of action certainly ranks among the Pistons’ worst stretches of basketball this season.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Piston Jerami Grant scores 36, leads Trail Blazers to blowout win