Swede Victory: Jerebko Sets Early Tone in Milwaukee Win

Jerebko sets tone early as Pistons cruise past Milwaukee
Swede Victory
by Keith Langlois

There were a lot of reasons the Pistons put a really nice notch in the win column Friday night, a division win over a team that’s unexpectedly thrust itself into the playoff race for those last four spots in the East. There was the scoring of their guards, the anchoring defense of Ben Wallace and the season-best 28 assists.

But you want to boil the 105-96 win over Milwaukee down, let’s start where credit belongs: with the tone set by Jonas Jerebko’s relentless hustle that netted him 10 first-quarter points, establishing a tone for the game because he simply refused to stop running.

It was because he ran the court and hunted down loose balls like a bloodhound that Milwaukee kept fouling him in that first quarter, putting him at the free-throw line seven times in 11 minutes. He wound up with four rebounds and an assist to go with those 10 points and his hard work produced enough easy points that the Pistons ended the quarter ahead 34-23, a lead the Bucks never seriously threatened all night, though it got a little hairy at the end when they cut a 14-point lead at the four-minute mark down to five.

“Jonas has emerged as one of the best rookies in this league right now,” John Kuester said after Jerebko finished with 16 points, seven boards, three assists and a blocked shot in 27 hyperactive minutes. “I’m so pleased that he’s expanding his game. Some of the passes he made to Ben Wallace and the ability to score in the open court and staying aggressive, having the confidence to take the 3 at the end.

“His aggressiveness, his defense have been so impressive. Just so everyone understands, it’s nice to see him expanding his game, but the reason he is playing is his energy, running the floor, defending and rebounding.”

That 3 at the end Kuester mentioned was really a long deuce, but it came when Milwaukee had just cut the lead to seven on a Brandon Jennings triple with 2:16 left and suddenly made it seem like the Bucks, on a 7-0 run, could really force their way back into the game.

“I feel confident now,” Jerebko said. “I’ve been playing well and my teammates have confidence in me, so it was just … shoot it. And it went in, luckily.”

That confidence helps fuel Jerebko’s aggression, which manifests itself in his all-out hustle that has won his teammates over.

“We came out with energy, all of us,” the NBA’s first Swede said. “I get paid for running. I usually run. I got the ball today and the point guards played great. We’ve got to keep playing like that. That’s how we want to play, running. We’re a young team. We run. That’s how we want to play and we’ve just got to keep it up.”

“I knew right from the summertime, playing pickup, the way he plays, how hard he plays, he kind of feeds off of that,” Ben Gordon said. “He brings constant energy. That keep shim out on the floor and he’s doing a great job taking advantage of this opportunity.”

“He just comes out with energy,” Rodney Stuckey said. “He’s a young player and that’s what we need from him. He runs the floor, plays good defense, he rebounds the ball and he’s doing a good job.”

The win lifts the Pistons to 7-12 and drops Milwaukee, which got off to an 8-3 start, to 9-9. It was the second of four consecutive games – Chicago, Milwaukee, Washington at The Palace on Sunday and at Philadelphia on Wednesday – against Eastern teams that have designs on the postseason. So squeaking out some wins while the Pistons await the returns of Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince is important.

“This was a huge game for us, no question,” Kuester said.

About those returns: The win wasn’t the only good news of the night.

There are low rumblings - the first hints, really – that the returns of Hamilton and Prince could be imminent, a week or two away, perhaps. And when that happens, the Pistons are again going to be amply bestowed on their perimeter with the two vets to go with Stuckey, Gordon and Will Bynum. Even Chucky Atkins announced his candidacy for a future role Friday with 10 first-quarter points of his own, making four straight shots before narrowly rimming out a triple at the buzzer.

But Jerebko has left such an impression on everyone, from the front office to the coaches to his teammates, that he’s going to have a role even when the Pistons return to full strength. I asked Kuester on Thursday if Jerebko would be in the mix at power forward, where he spent every minute of the preseason getting his feet wet until emergency conditions arose.

“He’s going to get an opportunity at the four position, also,” Kuester said. “He’s too valuable to our team right now and brings so much to the plate that he’s going to find some time, some way, in that four position.”

For all the buzz about Jerebko, it’s worth remembering that Stuckey is just a year older and still learning what it takes to be an NBA point guard. More games like Friday would be just fine by Kuester. Stuckey was understated and efficient, finishing with 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting, dishing out a season-best nine assists and pulling down six rebounds, including a big one in the final minute with the Pistons up seven when he outbattled 7-footer Andrew Bogut.

“He made some great passes out there,” Kuester said. “A lot of it off the penetration, kicking it to our shooters. I love it when, two things: I see him being aggressive rebounding, being aggressive defending. Then when I see him taking the ball to the basket, even though they called a couple of charges, that aggression you can live with.”

Stuckey is making a conscious effort to get the Pistons’ big men involved. Wallace finished with 11 points, 11 boards and three blocks, eight of his points coming on four third-quarter dunks, two of them on gorgeous feeds from Stuckey and the others on passes from Gordon and Jerebko. Brown had four points and four boards in a sturdy 15 minutes as they combined to soundly outplay Bogut, who finished with eight points and five boards in 27 minutes.

“When the guards are coming off pick and rolls, if our bigs duck in, they’re going to be wide open,” he said. “That’s what I was telling them to do tonight. I know they’re going to look to help off our screens a lot. I just told Kwame and (Wallace) and all those guys, you’ve just got to roll and they were open tonight.”