After the Pistons got walloped by the Bucks in Game 1 of their first-round series yesterday, Andre Drummond found a silver lining for getting ejected in the third quarter.
“I got to shower early,” he said.
Drummond wasn’t Detroit’s worst player in the 121-86 loss, not by a longshot. He finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, and he even did a relatively good job defending Giannis Antetokounmpo.
But Antetokounmpo showed up Drummond by hitting a 3-pointer as Drummond literally waved him off in the third quarter:
That was Antetokounmpo’s only made 3-pointer in five tries. The Pistons can live with him taking those shots. But Drummond’s wave only added to Detroit’s torment.
Shortly after, Antetokounmpo grabbed an offensive rebound in front of Drummond. In frustration, Drummond pushed the Milwaukee star:
Drummond got a flagrant 2 and ejection, but even Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer agreed that should have been a flagrant 1. Still, it definitely wasn’t a basketball play.
Up so big around that point, Milwaukee took its foot off the gas. But because Drummond was in the showers, he didn’t get a chance to improve his plus-minus against the coasting Bucks.
As a result, he finished -45 – the worst plus-minus in a playoff game since at least 2001, as far as Basketball-Reference go back.
Here are the worst playoff-game plus-minuses on record:
