Pistons trounced by Pelicans for first bad post-Smith game

64. 105. 69. Final. 94

C-. Jennings didn’t do much early on and the Pelicans built up a basically insurmountable lead. If the Pistons had miraculously come back, though, it would have been thanks to Jennings’ single-handedly powering them through the third quarter, during which he got to the free throw line 10 times.<p class=. PG. Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS

C+. Caldwell-Pope guarded Eric Gordon very well. But Gordon was pretty much automatic whenever he got an inch of daylight.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE

C. Singler had several nice ball pokes. And seven points isn’t bad for 17 minutes. But he didn’t play well enough that I had a problem with his limited time.. SF. Pistons. KYLE SINGLER

B+. Monroe held his own against perhaps the best basketball player in the world. Greg repeatedly bodied Davis up and kept him from getting where he wanted to go. When Davis beat him with speed, Monroe fouled before the shot attempt to stop him without giving up free throws.<p class=. PF. Pistons. GREG MONROE

F-. While Monroe mitigated the damage done by Davis, Drummond did nothing to slow him down and even got dominated by Asik. Unacceptable. Andre repeatedly established position for defensive rebounds far too deep under the basket so that he had to try to reach behind his back to snatch caroms from his opponents.. C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND

C-. Augustin came in with the Pistons down 10 in the first quarter and immediately keyed a 12-2 run to put the game right back up for grabs. Unfortunately, he then failed to offer any resistance to Fredette as the Pelicans scored 14 straight. The game would never be close again.. PG. Pistons. D.J. AUGUSTIN

C-. Meeks did his best Anthony Morrow impression. Sure, he shot well enough. But he didn’t play defense or contribute anything else to the team.. SG. Pistons. JODIE MEEKS

D+. Butler was basically a less productive version of Meeks. It’s a bad sign when he plays more than 20 minutes.. SF. Pistons. CARON BUTLER

Pistons. JONAS JEREBKO. D. Jerebko bothered the New Orleans wings on defense, but it went both ways. He’s been making the most of relatively open looks this season. But with no other Pistons appearing particularly threatening, Pondexter and Cunningham stuck on Jerebko and he was rendered useless offensively.. PF

B+. Tolliver played very well in garbage time. When the game was not yet decided, he kept losing Anderson, though.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER

Pistons. JOEL ANTHONY. B+. Anthony also played some very good garbage time minutes. But who cares?. C

Inc. In three minutes, Martin failed to record any stats.. SF. Pistons. CARTIER MARTIN

F. The Pistons again came out flat. Again they made a push to make th game manageable. Only this time, the opponent responded swiftly and viciously to re-open the game and maintain a dominant margin the rest of the way.<p>What really hurts, though, is that this loss came to a .500ish team. A one-possession loss to the Hawks is understandable, in fact it’s somewhat impressive given how well they’ve been playing. But a blowout loss to a team that may well miss the playoffs? That takes some shine off Detroit’s recent run.</p>. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY