Jodie Meeks impressive as Pistons winning streak ends with loss at Clippers
Detroit Pistons, 91
Los Angeles Clippers, 113
Andre Drummond — B
It was an impressive statistical night for Drummond, but numbers don’t tell the whole story. He struggled with shots at the rim — reasonable considering DeAndre Jordan’s presence — but he made some nice moves down low. The fact that he had zero defensive rebounds in the first half was costly though. Jordan just plain outworked him on the glass and got him all sorts of turned around on a few alley-oops.
Josh Smith — D+
It was the usual Josh Smith Basketball Line: Did some good things offensively, but negated them with lackluster effort and porous shooting. He tied for the team lead with two air balls — Singler also had two — and he was effective in the first quarter. But as the Pistons fell apart, so did Smith.
Kyle Singler — F
Singler hit two of his first three from deep as the Pistons jumped on the sluggish Clippers, but that was about all Singler provided. He shot and missed a lot (2 for 9) and struggled to keep up with J.J. Redick defensively.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — D
Very passive game by Caldwell-Pope. He didn’t shoot much, and wasn’t really a factor defensively. He was totally out-played by Jodie Meeks, too. I think it’s only a matter of time before Meeks is starting over Caldwell-Pope.
Brandon Jennings — D
Erratic. Jennings had five points, five assists in the first quarter and one assist and, you guessed it, one point the rest of the way. He shot poorly and struggled to contain the mighty Jordan Farmar defensively. He’s had a rough month, and I don’t know what’s wrong with him.
Greg Monroe — D+
Monroe is going to have nightmares of Glen Davis standing over him manically screaming. He almost played like a guy who’s desire to be traded became public knowledge earlier that day or something? Davis out-toughed him and the rim wasn’t any friendlier. Monroe rebounded in garbage time to put together a decent night, but that stretch in the first half against Davis was horrific.
Jodie Meeks — B+
The vaunted jumper is a little rusty — he was long on nearly all of his early misses — but I like Meeks’ game so far. He’s a lot better moving the ball and passing than I anticipated and his defense has been passable. He really played well once he got some legit playing time in the second half, finishing with 20 points on 10 shot while making all seven of his free throws.
D.J. Augustin — D+
It was a strange night for Augustin. He missed his only shot but dished four assists. He also had three turnovers and just didn’t look comfortable at all. He was also torched by Farmar in the second quarter. That was when L.A. really took over. It was a joint effort with Jennings, but Augustin was at the forefront defensively.
Caron Butler — C
Butler did what he does. He came in and scored, didn’t play great defense and saw zero garbage time because he’s old and garbage time would just waste whatever he’s got left in the tank. Meh.
Jonas Jerebko — C+
Jerebko didn’t play until the game was out of reach int he fourth quarter, but eh came in and gave some pretty good effort. Credit him for keeping himself focused despite being thrown in and out of the rotation recently.
Spencer Dinwiddie — D+
The rookie didn’t do a whole lot in the fourth quarter. One thing I wish he’d do more is commit to the drive offensively. His scoring has mostly come on shooting 3-pointers, which isn’t bad at times but seems to be his only confident scoring move. Dinwiddie rarely drives to score, always to dish. Be aggressive man, you’re playing in blowouts, you have little to lose.
Stan Van Gundy — C
The Pistons got run out of the Staples Center with owner Tom Gores sitting court side, so I’m sure it wasn’t a very good night for Van Gundy. Gores told reporters before the game that he’s confident the wins will come and that he believes in what Van Gundy is doing. Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News:
"“Well it’s tough and the hardest part for me, Stan wants to win so bad,” Gores said. “He genuinely wants to see them make progress. The hardest part for me is everybody’s working hard and when you’re not winning and working hard that sucks.“We gotta reassess what we’re doing. That’s what’s great about Stan. He’s not sitting around and sticking to the gameplan. He has different starting lineups at times. He reassesses things every single minute.”"
It’s hard to kill Van Gundy for this loss. He was called for an early technical, arguing an offensive foul call on Jennings. The Pistons played hard for the first 10 minutes of the game. The Clippers weren’t fully engaged, but the Pistons looked good. Players missed open shots, the frontcourt collectively ignored rebounding at times and once the Clippers got on a run in the third quarter, there was no timeout or defensive change slowing that hurricane. I’m sure he’ll chastise the inconsistent effort, but it was just a bad game all around if you weren’t named Meeks or Drummond.