Chicago Bulls hand Detroit Pistons ugly 113-82 loss
By David Topham
The Chicago Bulls absolutely dominated the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, winning 113-82 in a 31-point blowout.
The Chicago Bulls (14-13) steamrolled the Detroit Pistons (14-16) by 31 points on Monday night, winning 113-82. If a 15-point loss warrants a players-only meeting, what the hell are the Pistons going to do after this one?
This game was over from the jump. The Bulls rocketed out to an 8-0 lead, the Pistons didn’t score for the first 2:49, and it went way downhill from there. Soon it was 12-2 Bulls, then 21-6, then 35-19 at the end of the first quarter and 69-34 at the half.
Yes, the Bulls had more first quarter points than the Pistons had first half points. Also, the Bulls scored as many points in the first half of this one as they did in their last full game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
It was a completely listless effort from the Pistons. They let the Bulls penetrate at will and create open shots for themselves, and pretty soon everybody was on fire. Thus, the Bulls shot a ridiculous 72.7% from the field in the first half and 59.8% for the game (50.0% from deep).
The Pistons essentially folded and called it a night by the middle of the second quarter. They stopped giving full effort, stopped getting back on defense and watched Chicago, who complied 34 assists on 49 made shots, rack up some highlight reel plays.
The only redeeming facet of this one was a nice run from a Ish Smith–Darrun Hilliard–Stanley Johnson–Jon Leuer–Aron Baynes lineup that at least competed hard down the stretch before the benches cleared. That group outscored the Bulls 26-22 across an 11-minute stretch in the second half, which is really saying something considering how the rest of the game went.
That’s about all the nice things there is to say about this one, so let’s get to the grades.
F. Zero shot attempts in 12 first-quarter minutes for Reggie Jackson. Yes, I get the team was making a concerted effort to run more of the offense through Tobias Harris and KCP, but come on. Jackson was lethargic out there once again and has no bounce in his legs.. PG. Detroit Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON
Detroit Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. F. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was invisible on offense for most of this one outside of two nice attacks off of dribble handoffs. He also let Dwyane Wade get inside early, which sort of jump started the Bulls crazy first half.. SG
F. Marcus Morris just didn’t stand a chance of hanging with Jimmy Butler tonight, although few in the NBA do. Butler blew by Morris multiple times to get and create easy looks for his team, finishing 6-7 from the field with 6 assists. On the other end, Morris settled for bad looks and only shot 2-9 from the field.. SF. Detroit Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS
F. Tobias Harris tried to keep the Pistons somewhat competitive with seven first-quarter points, but he offered no resistance on Taj Gibson. Gibson had 16 points on a perfect 8-8 from the field in 19 minutes, with 12 of those coming in the first half.. PF. Detroit Pistons. TOBIAS HARRIS
F. I thought Andre Drummond wasn’t doing too awful on defense compared to the rest of Pistons early on. He wasn’t giving Robin Lopez much in the way of position on his wonky hook shots, but the Bulls were so on fire that he was making them from extended distance anyway.. C. Detroit Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND
B. Jon Leuer had a team-high 16 points and five (yes, five) rebounds. He headlined the only good stint of the game down the stretch for the Pistons, but he, like the rest of them, had no impact on the first half.. PF. Detroit Pistons. JON LEUER
Off the top of my head, this was Stanley Johnson’s best game of the season. While he only shot 3-9 from the field, he was aggressive all night and made several nice plays as a result. Johnson finished with 7 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and two steals and had a plus/minus of +3.. SF. Detroit Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. A-
D-. Aron Baynes failed to make an impact in his 18 minutes of playing time. Cristiano Felicio of all people got the best of him multiple times, which tells you about the kind of night it was for the Pistons’ backup center.. C. Detroit Pistons. ARON BAYNES
ISH SMITH. B. Ish Smith joined the rest of the Pistons by throwing up a stinker in the first half, but redeemed himself in the second. In approximately 11 second half minutes, Smith tallied 2 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assists as he and the bench provided some fight.. PG. Detroit Pistons
B-. Darrun Hilliard got some extended run in the blowout, but failed to bury his three pointers, finished 1-4 from deep. He did, however, finish tied for second on team with four rebounds.. SG. Detroit Pistons. DARRUN HILLIARD
We had a Boban Marjanovic sighting for the game’s final seven minutes, so there’s something good that came of the blowout. Marjanovic was very active in that time, showing a soft touch on his hook and blocking a few shots.. C. Detroit Pistons. BOBAN MARJANOVIC. A-
C-. The Pistons’ rookie also got to play the final seven minutes. He took three shots, all from deep, and missed them all. He also made a nice play on defense where he forced a bad shot with the shot clock running out by holding his ground and keeping his log arms straight up.. PF/C. Detroit Pistons. HENRY ELLENSON
B-. Such a blowout this was that even Beno Udrih was inserted in the fourth quarter. He played effective, penetrating and weaving as he looked for Marjanovic and others.. PG. Detroit Pistons. BENO UDRIH
Head Coach. Detroit Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY. F. Disgusting, unprofessional, humiliating, embarrassing. These were some of the words Stan Van Gundy used to describe his team’s performance tonight. I also think he was right to not change the starting lineup, but it appears he will do just that for Wednesday’s game, which I still don’t agree with at this time.
SVG on lineup changes: "It's just a matter of who now. I guarantee you on Wednesday night we're not trotting that five out there again."
— Keith Langlois (@Keith_Langlois) December 20, 2016
Now let’s never speak of this game again. The Pistons are back in Detroit to take on the Grizzlies on Wednesday night.