{"id":700195,"date":"2026-04-05T20:45:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700195\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:45:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:45:29","slug":"pistons-jalen-duren-reflects-on-proving-doubters-wrong-by-clinching-eastern-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700195\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons\u2019 Jalen Duren reflects on proving doubters wrong by clinching Eastern Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pistons\u2019 Jalen Duren reflects on proving doubters wrong by clinching Eastern Conference<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Detroit Pistons<\/a>\u2019 elite reign over the Eastern Conference will now carry to the postseason. After defeating the Philadelphia 76ers 116-93, the Pistons have now clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference<\/a> for the first time since 2006-07.<\/p>\n

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Detroit has remained in the top spot of their conference longer than any other team in the East, and they will now have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. There is a 4.5-game lead between the Pistons and the Boston Celtics, which eliminates their chance to overtake the conference. All-Star center Jalen Duren<\/a> shared his joy of the moment and the accomplishment<\/a> after the Saturday night victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, they were laughing at us. They didn\u2019t believe in the vision. They didn\u2019t think we were going to be good enough. They thought it was going to take longer. But we just put the work in, and we\u2019re just happy. We\u2019re going to take it with a grain of salt and keep moving forward,\u201d Duren stated.<\/p>\n

Duren has been a focal point of the Pistons\u2019 turnaround since Detroit drafted him in 2022<\/a>. The 22-year-old center has spent his entire four-year career with the Pistons and has done a lot to help restore the glory of the franchise.<\/p>\n

This turnaround featured some historic dark times for the Pistons on their quest back to prominence. Duren was a key part of Detroit\u2019s core during their 2023-24 28-game losing streak under former head coach Monty Williams. Instead of resetting the foundation, Detroit opted to rebuild around its drafted core with new veterans, a new head coach in J.B. Bickerstaff, and a new general manager in Trajan Langdon.<\/p>\n

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The Pistons have had to maneuver through adversity on the path to their recent success. Detroit has been forced to maintain their winning identity through a plethora of injuries, including the loss of franchise point guard Cade Cunningham<\/a>. Instead of faltering through the struggles, they flourished by embracing the next man up mentality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t take a backseat-type mentality. Let\u2019s go show everybody that we can ball. Let\u2019s go show everybody what our style of play is made of and the confidence that we have in each other,\u201d veteran forward Tobias Harris<\/a> explained to the media, via Omari Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press. \u201cWe just continue to preach it every single day and go about our business working. I just think the way that we play basketball, our style of play on the defensive end and then on the offensive end, and we continue to improve on taking huge strides. We\u2019re just working. We\u2019re finding ways to get better as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time the Pistons clinched the Eastern Conference, their postseason run made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Detroit is looking to build off of last season\u2019s playoff appearance in their grueling first-round matchup against the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

Momentum continues to build for the Pistons as the regular season winds down. There are only four regular-season games left before the postseason begins. Detroit has thrived without key pieces, but there is hope that injured players like Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart will be ready to go by the time the playoffs are underway.<\/p>\n

Related: Tyrese Maxey celebrates Pistons for playing \u2018the right way\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Are Paul George, Tyrese Maxey playing tonight? 76ers vs. Pistons injury report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pistons\u2019 Jalen Duren reflects on proving doubters wrong by clinching Eastern Conference appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,75,909,296,188,3860,1409,1016,912,6,191,207,297,933],"class_list":{"0":"post-700195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-cade-cunningham","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-detroitpistons","14":"tag-eastern-conference","15":"tag-isaiah-stewart","16":"tag-jalen-duren","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-new-york-knicks","19":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","20":"tag-pistons","21":"tag-tobias-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116354057736445291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}