Brook Lopez’s buzzer beater delivers a crushing blow to Pistons’ playoff hopes

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy felt the defense was pretty good on the final possession of his team’s heart-breaking loss on to the Nets on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the offense was a bit better.

With 2.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Brook Lopez hit a game-winning buzzer beater to lift Brooklyn to a 98-96 win over the Detroit Pistons.

“He’s 7’2 and he made a hell of a shot,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think there was anything more we could’ve done on it.

Lopez caught the ball near the three-point line and gave a head fake before taking a dribble towards the bucket and drilling a step back fadeaway jump shot off of one foot. The Nets’ center scored 29 points on 13-of-24 shooting to improve Brooklyn’s record to 14-56 on the season.

Nets coach Kenny Atkinson detailed a bevy of factors at play to set his workhorse big man up for the game-winning shot.

“I though [Isaiah Whitehead] set a monster screen, really had a great hit. [Randy Foye] delivered it and then, quite honestly, Brook made a heck of a play,” Atkinson told reporters during the post-game press conference. “It was more for a catch and shoot but he took a dribble, knew how much time was left and made a heck of a shot. It’s more about Brook being a heck of a player.”

“I was very confident in [that shot], it felt good,” Lopez told reporters after the game. “You know we executed so well on that last play, which is something that we’ve learned throughout this season to do.”

The Barclays Center crowd erupted after the made basket.

Brooklyn holds the league’s worst record by a mile, so their victory — while notable — does hold much weight as the season burrows through the final stretch. The shot was a blow, however, to a Pistons team clawing to keep their slot as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference

Tuesday’s loss drops Detroit to 34-37. They are now a half-game behind the Miami Heat and have fallen to ninth in the conference standings. The Heat have won seven of their last 10 and 24 of their last 30 games.

And if the Pistons make a habit of losing to opponents with lesser records, they could be on the outside looking in come April.