Pistons drop fifth game in six tries, barely hang on to playoff position
By Tim Thielke
| Greg Monroe, PF Shot Chart 38 MIN | 7-17 FG | 8-12 FT | 10 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 22 PTS | +8Monroe played like a team’s best player. He called for the ball early and often and aggressively went into the teeth of the defense. You’d like to see him make some more of his shots, but this was the attitude so many have been claiming he is missing. |
Josh Smith, SF
43 MIN | 6-19 FG | 4-6 FT | 9 REB | 6 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 16 PTS | -1
Smith has been playing better perimeter defense of late, but not in this one as any Wizard playing SF burned Detroit from beyond the arc.
Andre Drummond, C
32 MIN | 7-10 FG | 2-4 FT | 16 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 16 PTS | -16
Drummond once again put up a fabulous line, especially for his minutes. But his defense was not all that stout and, on a related note, he was picking up too many fouls.
Brandon Jennings, PG
39 MIN | 5-16 FG | 3-4 FT | 0 REB | 14 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 6 TO | 15 PTS | +7
Jennings played how we want him to, but it didn’t go well in this one. Those were good shots he was missing, but he still missed them. He didn’t play particularly turnover prone ball, but still got 6 of them. And his defense was no worse than normal, but Wall requires better D.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG
35 MIN | 7-11 FG | 0-1 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 17 PTS | +8
KCP had an incredible first half. He was the main reason the Pistons led after 24. He was good enough that, even after a complete dud of a second half, it was still a good game for him. But he did nothing, on either end, in that second half.
Josh Harrellson, PF
3 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -2
Harrellson didn’t make any meaningful impact in 3 minutes.
Kyle Singler, SF
26 MIN | 4-5 FG | 2-4 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | -7
Some players are referred to as “quietly putting up (whatever numbers)”. Singler must put his up very noisily, because he always makes a couple impressive plays and then I look at the stat sheet and it’s highly underwhelming.
Luigi Datome, SF
3 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-2 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | -3
The Pistons should have gone to the break up 12. Datome did a great job of getting past his defender on an inbounds play with a couple seconds on the shot clock. But when he got hacked, he missed both free throws. The Pistons needed those freebies from their best shooter (on paper) on a night when missing free throws was the primary reason for the loss.
Will Bynum, PG
9 MIN | 0-0 FG | 2-2 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -14
Bynum got torched on D every moment he was on the floor.
Chauncey Billups, SG
12 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | -15
See Bynum above. Also, Billups missed his shots.
Maurice Cheeks
The Pistons looked much more prepared and played much better against the Wizards than they did in their last game. The Wizards are just playing really, really well these days. In spite of that, the Pistons might would have won if they just hit their normal, league-worst free throw percentage. And much as I’m not a Cheeks fan, I can’t put missed free throws on him.My main gripe is that he didn’t try putting KCP on Wall, who was torching all the lousy defenders (Jennings, Bynum, Billups) he did use.