| Greg Monroe, PF 37 MIN | 8-14 FG | 1-8 FT | 7 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 17 PTS | -5Monroe played well and put up solid counting stats. But all the missed free throws made it much harder for the Pistons to scrape their way back into this one.His defense continues to be good this season in one-on-one situations but he’s not good at rotating and ending up where he is supposed to. | ||
| Josh Smith, SF 38 MIN | 7-12 FG | 1-2 FT | 8 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 18 PTS | -5Smith was way too quick to shoot from deep, but he was hitting more than not in this game. His interior D is magnificent, but if he plays alongside Monroe AND Drummond, he really needs to work on his perimeter D. He has enough length to get a finger on a lot of jumpers. | ||
| Andre Drummond, C 38 MIN | 7-9 FG | 0-2 FT | 13 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 14 PTS | -16Were you wondering how Drummond can help space the floor with that awful shot? Wonder no more, Drummond was setting phenomenal screens for the guards allowing them to repeatedly get open shots in the lane. Yeah, you can have a diverse offense even while getting most of your points at the rim. And his box score stats were pretty solid too. | ||
| Brandon Jennings, PG 39 MIN | 8-22 FG | 3-3 FT | 5 REB | 14 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 23 PTS | -1Jennings was again trigger happy. The volume was ok. But he should only be shooting when he’s open or the clock is running down. Otherwise, move the ball around and see if you can get a higher percentage look. His assist count was deceptively high. Jennings wasn’t passing that well. His teammates just shot a lot after getting the ball instead of passing it further.Jennings’ breakaway alley-oop to Drummond was awesome, though. Because it wasn’t flashy for the flash, it was flashy because that was the only way he could get a clean pass to Drummond with two defenders right on them. | ||
| Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG 26 MIN | 3-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | -22Pope had the most epic steal I’ve seen so far this season when he stuffed Blake’s pass with both hands. Apart from that, though, his defense was not as good as expected. | ||
| Tony Mitchell, PF 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -2Nothing of consequence happened in Mitchell’s 49.4 seconds. | ||
| Josh Harrellson, PF 1 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -2Nothing of consequence happened in Harrellson’s 49.4 seconds. | ||
| Jonas Jerebko, PF 3 MIN | 0-1 FG | 2-2 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -5Jerebko didn’t get much burn, but when on the floor he did a good job of taking what the Lakers gave him. When they backed off, he drove. When they collapsed, he kicked out, when they jumped out on the shooters, he established good position. He also played solid D but got torched anyway. For so little time on the court, he sure had a lot of threes drained over his hand in the shooter’s face. | ||
| Luigi Datome, SF 6 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +10Datome was useless. He probably should have played more, but not based on anything he did in this brief appearance. | ||
| Kyle Singler, SF 20 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -20Singler’s stat line fit my impression of his game. I felt like I could remember seeing him out there quite a bit, but I couldn’t remember any plays he was involved in. | ||
| Rodney Stuckey, SG 30 MIN | 8-16 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 16 PTS | -7Stuckey had some really ugly TOs. First he threw the ball directly out of bounds. I still have no idea who that pass was intended for. Then he tried to thread a pass by Xavier Henry. Look, there are just some guys not worth making risky passes around. Henry is one of those guys.But overall, his offense was good. Stuckey manhandled smaller guards on the block. Unfortunately, he didn’t do much to stop them from responding with open jumpers. | ||
| Maurice Cheeks I’m not sure if Cheeks understands the value of taking a timeout when the other team is playing well. It gives your team a chance to regroup and reenter the game feeling confident and ready to stop the bleeding. |
Two Things We Saw
- The Pistons really need to work on their transition game on both ends.
- The Pistons played some solid defense down the stretch. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was pretty good. And the Lakers just kept draining shot after shot. Credit this one to a game well played by the Lakers.