Pistons beat Wizards, pushing them from 9th to 7th in the East

Recap | Box Score98Washington Wizards

Josh Smith, SF

35 MIN | 8-17 FG | 6-10 FT | 8 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 4 TO | 22 PTS | -5

Smith was the tale of two halves. He was 0-6 for 2 points in the first as the Pistons looked like they were probably going to let another opportunity slip away. Then he came roaring back in the second with 20 points on 8-11 shooting. It was still terrible shot selection, but he was knocking them down.

Andre Drummond, C

27 MIN | 5-6 FG | 0-2 FT | 13 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 10 PTS | -2

Drummond was once again crashing the boards like a monster and scoring very efficiently. And the fourth foul he picked up was totally bogus. But in spite of the fact that Cheeks (presumably) knew that he wouldn’t trot Dre out down the stretch, he still pulled Drummond early–again. I gotta mark Andre down, though, for failing to register a single block or steal all game.

Brandon Jennings, PG

32 MIN | 4-13 FG | 3-4 FT | 2 REB | 8 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 14 PTS | -6

Jennings missed a lot of shots and was useless on Wall, but he still got 14 points on 13 shots (below average, but not bad) and took back the ball for every time he gave it away. If Wall hadn’t dropped 34, I’d call it a good performance.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG

41 MIN | 2-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | +10

KCP, what to do with you? You shut down Beal. He was worse than useless for the Wiz. But offensively, you were a liability as well. I guess I would expect a bigger game from Beal than from Caldwell-Pope, so the fact that they were both dreadful is a net plus.

Kyle Singler, SF

22 MIN | 5-6 FG | 2-4 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 14 PTS | +21

Singler didn’t get much burn in the second half, so, by game’s end, he was easy to forget. But he was the only Pistons really stepping up in the first half. And his incredible hustle and good shooting in that period meant there was a relatively small hole for Smith, Stuckey, and Drummond to dig out of in the second.

Will Bynum, PG

20 MIN | 3-7 FG | 1-1 FT | 2 REB | 6 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | +3

Bynum didn’t hugely move the needle in either direction. But I love watching him play with Drummond. His oop off the backboard was awesome.

Rodney Stuckey, SG

31 MIN | 8-15 FG | 4-5 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 20 PTS | +9

Stuckey’s scoring has been better this season than any prior year. But the rest of his contributions have tailed off. This game was exemplary of those facts. But in his current role as the scoring combo guard off the bench, what Stuckey is giving the Pistons is exactly what they need from him.

Maurice Cheeks

Cheeks is playing the rotations like he said he would. All three of Detroit’s bigs start, but once one of Monroe/Drummond leaves the game, they just sub in and out for each other. That’s probably better than his early season rotations, but still leaves something to be desired.

What really leaves something to be desired is his perplexing tendency to pull really anyone, but especially Drummond when they are barely in foul trouble. Let ’em play Cheeks, especially Dre who won’t be closing out most contests anyway.