Detroit Pistons-95, Sacramento Kings-90
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope-C
Didn’t get a chance to play a whole lot in the first half as Van Gundy experiments with Meeks’ minutes, but he played solid defense on McLemore and played with a ton of energy as usual. He made both of his free throw attempts and shot 40 % from downtown, but didn’t take very many shots overall.
Andre Drummond-C+
Tonight was another one of those game where it starts out promising for Drummond, only to be derailed by foul trouble. He picked up 3-fouls with over 10-minutes left to play in the second quarter, two of which were pretty awful calls. Despite the sluggish start, Drummond was able to pick it up and finish with modest numbers 12-points, 10-rebounds in just 26-minutes along with 2-steals, one of which was a really nice open court steal, and a block.
He should have finished with an additional block on Ray McCallum, but it ended up being ruled a goal tending- another awful call against Drummond.
Josh Smith-B+
Smith can make you pull your hair out with his erratic play. He had a couple nice passes to Drummond in transition for an easy score, but also had two TERRIBLE passes to Drummond in transition. Seriously one pass was thrown into the stands.
He hit some nice shots in the first half, but also took two or three bad shots. He had a nice play on help defense for a block and another steal on a would have been lay up only to be dominated by Jason Thompson in the first quarter to the tune of 8-points and 5-rebounds on 4/5 shooting.
Smith would finish the first half with 12-points on 5/10 shooting with six-rebounds, 3-assists, a block, a steal, and 5-turnovers, as he made plays on both ends of the good/bad spectrum that left you wondering whether he was keeping his team in the game or out of it.
In the second half his good far outweighed the bad. He (only) had two turnovers the rest of the way, took and made better shots for 21-points and finished with 13-rebounds, and 5-blocks.
If second half Josh Smith keeps up, the Pistons may find a decent return for him in trade after all. It doesn’t hurt that he did it against the Kings, a team that has shown interest in him in the past.
Kyle Singler-B+
Solid game all around from Singler. His hit almost all of his open shots (3/5 from spot up threes) and showed his ability to get into the lane a few times. Although he was completely outmatched defensively against Rudy Gay, he fought hard and made a few nice hustle plays on defense including two blocks.
Gay, who finished the first half with 14-points closed the night with 21-points meaning Singler and the rest of the Pistons who took turns guarding Singler did a much better job adjusting.
Brandon Jennings-C
Jennings’ scoring ability has completely left the building. Luckily, he found his teammates tonight recording eight-assists to only one turnover. Also, Darren Collison, they guy he played defense on most of the night, shot only 1/10 from the floor so Jennings gets a passing grade despite another abysmal night shooting.
Jodie Meeks-D
Meeks is definitely still getting his legs underneath him. There was one play in particular in the first half when he was in a one on one situation in transition and basically just fell down without even attempting a shot. The only way to get back into game shape is to continue to play more minutes and it looks like that’s the approach Van Gundy is taking with Meeks despite a pretty poor showing on offense and defense.
Greg Monroe-A
Aside from a few nice plays in transition he was pretty quiet in the first half on offense, but solid on defense. When he’s able to play his natural position at center behind Drummond he’s much more effective on the floor defensively.
In the second half, Monroe was much more involved finishing with 24-points on 8/13 shooting and eight-rebounds. Aside from a few easy misses he was on his A-game tonight.
D.J. Augustin-C-
six-assists on the night to one turnover, but the poor shooting continues, much like Brandon Jennings. Augustin receives a slightly worse grade, because Ray McCallum was able to get to the rim a few times on him as he was slightly outplayed.
Caron Butler-C-
Caron played 21-minutes tonight, but I barely noticed him; except for a couple bad plays on defense in the first half when he was guarding Gay. In the second half he hit a nice pull up jumper and I didn’t notice him missing any defensive assignments after the mess ups in the first.
Stan Van Gundy-B
After starting the big-three in Phoenix last night, Van Gundy went back to Singler against Sacramento which was an interesting move matching Singler on Rudy Gay. To combat the obvious mismatch Van Gundy used a double team when Gay went into the low post which was a nice thought, but Singler was still completely owned when Gay went outside. To be fair, so was any other Piston guarding Gay as he had any easy 14-points at the half.
To end the second quarter the Kings went on a 7-0 run. To end the third quarter the Kings went on another 7-0 run. In each situation Drummond and Caldwell-Pope were on the bench. I admire that Van Gundy is giving Meeks a chance to get his feet under him, but it’s resulted in a lesser role for Caldwell-Pope, at least tonight, which doesn’t make much sense to me. Caldwell-Pope has been playing extremely well as of late.
Still, Van Gundy’s team has won on back-to-back nights, which is no small feat the way this season is going. Defensively, the Pistons held Gay to just 7-points in the second half after 14 in the first.
I only hope that Van Gundy remains adamant about making roster changes sometime in the next month and doesn’t take these last two wins as a sign to try again with the big-three.