Griffin (knee) starts, but Pistons now in hole 0-3

While Griffin led the Pistons in scoring, he was perhaps more valuable in defense. Griffin has been assigned to Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo finished with just 14 points – its lowest total since January.

Griffin missed the first two games of the series because of a knee pain. He also attended the final game of the Detroit regular season. Thon Maker had started in Griffin's place.

Before Saturday's game, Pistons coach, Dwane Casey, said that whether Griffin plays or not would be determined by his warm-up. He warmed up before the second game in Milwaukee on Wednesday before choosing not to play.

"It's one of those things that's tenuous," Casey said before the game. "He feels a lot, a lot better, so we're going from there."

Casey had said throughout the series that he hoped Griffin would feel good enough to come back. Before the second game, Casey had stated that Griffin, 30, felt no pain on certain days, while he felt uncomfortably on other days. His status has been on a daily basis since the beginning of the series last week.

"Bringing it back was really good for us," said Andre Drummond of Pistons Center. "We played as we were supposed to do."

Midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday, Griffin pulled himself together and landed awkwardly. He left the game limping and walked to the scorer's table. He returned to the game after that, but only briefly. He left for the last time while there was about 6 minutes left.

When asked to quantify his health after the match, Griffin refused to clarify his point of view and said he was healthy enough to play.

"With the injury, he gave us everything he could," Drummond said. "He definitely missed us, and it was nice to see him again."