Pistons’ win streak ends, fight does not, vs. Hawks

103. 64. 106. 125. Final

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. B. Caldwell-Pope embodied the Pistons tonight. He began the game shooting 1-for-10, taking too many uncomfortable off-the-dribble looks, while struggling on defense. He was one of several Pistons who couldn’t handle the switches and ground-covering necessary to defend the Hawks’ Spurs-esque offense that features great passing and movement. To be fair, a lot of teams have struggled to defend Atlanta lately, but the Pistons were getting absolutely torched. Detroit trailed by as many as 23 and by 15 with 8:40 left in the game. From there, the Pistons went on a 25-13 run with Caldwell-Pope scoring 16 of Detroit’s points. Even trailing by 14 with 4:40 left, 10 with 1:40 left, five with 3.5 seconds left and three – without the ball – with two seconds left, the Pistons still got Caldwell-Pope a relatively decent look at a buzzer-beating game-tying 3-pointer. He missed, but the effort to even reach that point did not go unnoticed. With Caldwell-Pope and the team, the bad outweighed the good tonight, but the good was so thrilling, I’m grading generously.. SG. Pistons

C-. Singler scored 16 points, his most in 15 games and more than the last four combined, with six rebounds and five assists. His 6-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-6 on 3-pointers, was a welcome sight after he’d gone 5-of-20 overall and 1-of-8 on 3s in his last four games. But his defense was really lousy, as he frequently got stuck in no-man’s land as the Hawks moved and swung the ball.. SF. Pistons. KYLE SINGLER

ANDRE DRUMMOND. D-. Drummond (four points on 2-of-6 shooting and five rebounds) <a href=. C. Pistons

B. Monroe (15 points on 14 shots and 12 rebounds) missed some easy looks and made some tough ones. He really picked up his defense in the second half, though the bar wasn’t too high.. PF. Pistons. GREG MONROE

B. Jennings (14 points on 6-of-14 shooting with eight assists and only one turnover) was solid individually, but he never really put his stamp on the game, allowing Atlanta to dictate the pace against him. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter, when the Pistons turned the tide.. PG. Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS

B+. Tolliver (15 points in 18 minutes, shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc) was instant offense. As quickly as he scored, he also fouled out in his little playing time.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER

D+. Augustin (four points on zero shots with five assists and one turnover in 20 minutes) shared the court with hot players like Caldwell-Pope and Tolliver and rightfully deferred to them. Augustin got eaten up by too many Atlanta screens, though. At least he shook off a hard foul late in the first quarter, getting elbowed in the head by Al Horford.. PG. Pistons. D.J. AUGUSTIN

Pistons. JODIE MEEKS. C. Meeks (3-of-12 overall, 0-for-4 on 3-pointers) is a good shooter, but not good enough to overcome Atlanta’s tight defense on him. The Hawks contested 59 percent of Detroit’s shots, but 10 of Meeks’ 12 (83 percent).. SG

Anthony’s fresh legs were really noticeable on defense once he entered the game in the third quarter to replace Drummond. More than he defended well individually, he at least got to the right spots and saved his teammates from scrambling as much as they had been in coverage.. C. Pistons. JOEL ANTHONY. B-

CARON BUTLER. C-. Butler played a season-low 10 minutes and didn’t appear after the first half. He made 2-of-3 shots, including a 3-pointer, but the Pistons needed spryer defenders.. SF. Pistons

Pistons. JONAS JEREBKO. C-. Jerebko (four points on 1-of-4 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and a steal) did a little bit of everything.. PF

Van Gundy has this team believing. The Pistons fell behind by 23 points against a superior opponent and didn’t quit. With Drummond sick and his team getting crushed, Van Gundy had to adjust – and he did, going to an extreme version of his spread offense. The Pistons attempted a franchise-record 43 3-pointers, crushing the previous record by 10. There was a three-way tie for most 3-point attempts in a game, all three coming this year. Van Gundy coaches a brand of basketball the Pistons have never seen before. Their 28 3-point attempts in the second-half alone tonight would have ranked 12th on the leaderboard entering this season. The Pistons made just 13 of those 43 treys tonight, and in hindsight, the 3-or-bust strategy might not have been necessary. Atlanta’s offense, after scoring 133.8 pointers per 100 possessions in the first half, posted just 57.9 in the fourth quarter. I think that had more to do with the Hawks losing their rhythm than anything the Pistons did, but regardless of the reason, Atlanta’s drop-off meant not as many points were necessary as thought to win. Still, Van Gundy didn’t know the Hawks could become so vulnerable, and a high-upside, high variance strategy was the right call. It nearly worked, too.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY. B+