Some nights in the NBA, you just can’t buy a basket. For the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, it was one of those nights. The Pistons shot just 38% from the floor as a team, and 17% from behind the three-point line. That won’t cut it against most NBA teams, and it definitely won’t get the job done against the kings of the preseason, the undefeated Charlotte Hornets.
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Charlotte has run their record up to 7-0 so far this preseason, while the Pistons fell to 2-5.
The Pistons led for most of the game, and took a six point lead into the fourth quarter until the shooting hit a new level of ice-cold. The Pistons closed the game on a 3-26 steak from long range, and were 0-9 from three-point land in the final period. That shooting squandered another strong outing for Andre Drummond, who has quietly produced an excellent preseason stat-line of 15.9 points and 12.6 rebounds per game on 53.1% shooting.
The Pistons held Hornets’ center Al Jefferson to a pedestrian 5-15 shooting from the field, but Jeremy Lin tore it up, scoring 18 points on 5-9 shooting with five rebounds and five assists. Shooting guard Nic Batum added 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got off to his hottest start for the Pistons since early in the preseason on Wednesday, hitting 3-6 shots and 2-4 from behind the arc and scoring eight points, but injured his foot late in the first quarter and didn’t return.
KCP’s foot was X-rayed during the second half of the game, and the Pistons announced that they came back negative and there was no break in his foot. He’ll receive an MRI on Thursday to determine the extent of the injury.
Considering the late stage of the preseason, head coach Stan Van Gundy may opt to shut Caldwell-Pope down for the preseason finale on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks and save him for the season opener (also against the Atlanta Hawks) on October 27th, which is somehow just around the corner already.
If that happens, Jodie Meeks and Pistons’ preseason darling Reggie Bullock should get a boost in minutes on Friday.
On nights like this one, the best thing about it is that the preseason is almost over, and that real basketball is less than a week away.
Let’s grade.
Next: Andre Drummond will wait until offseason to re-sign with Detroit Pistons