Detroit Pistons suffer blowout 118-103 loss to New Orleans Pelicans

The Detroit Pistons have extended their losing streak to three games, losing 118-103 against the New Orleans Pelicans at home.

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It was a mostly lifeless performance from the Detroit Pistons who were playing on the back of an equally disappointing loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

The Pistons showed some fight and spirit in the first quarter and there were positive signs as they went into the first break only trailing by a single point with the score reading 32-31.

However, the next three quarters lacked any life whatsoever.

The writing was on the wall early as the New Orleans Pelicans ran riot over the Pistons in the second quarter, going on an uncontested scoring run to blow the lead out to 13-points.

For the rest of the night, the deficit hovered around this mark, only occasionally dipping below and more often than night ballooning out towards 20-points.

It was yet another case of the Pistons being unable to defend competently.

There were huge concerns coming into this game about the inability to defend three-point shooters and this trend continued against the Pelicans.

They shot 41.2 percent from behind the line, going 14 of 34.

Anthony Davis (3 of 6), Darius Miller (4 of 7) and Nikola Mirotic (4 of 8) were almost automatic with the ball in their hands and more often than not were able to kill the Pistons’ momentum with a quick response three.

The Pelicans did make a number of closely guarded three-pointers, but what’s more alarming is how many times they were left wide-open.

Davis and Miller, in particular, seemed to have the entire court to themselves at times and unsurprisingly they made the Pistons pay.

Davis was monstrous and put up 38 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks.

He now owns the individual scoring record at Little Ceasars Arena to go alongside forever owning the scoring record at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Pistons’ offence was stagnant and lifeless for most of the night, which was most evident by their meagre assist total.

At one stage Jrue Holiday had more assists than the entire Detroit Pistons team, while Rajon Rondo had equalled them.

They ended the game with only 18 assists, just 9 of which came from the starting lineup.

Without Jameer Nelson (5 assists) and Luke Kennard (3 assists in just 11 minutes of game time) off the bench, the assists numbers would have looked even worse.

Blake Griffin led the offence with 22 points and seemed to be a lot more mindful of his shot selection.

However, he continued to jack three-pointers, much to the team’s detriment at times.

He shot 1 of 6 from deep but shot 7 of 11 on two-pointers and managed to get to the free throw line 6 times.

Possessions that end in a Griffin three-point attempt are almost guaranteed to see the Pistons go back onto defence empty handed at this point in time and it’s something that needs addressing immediately.

His 5 turnovers were also the most of any player on either team.

Drummond was his usual best on the glass, bringing down 21 rebounds, but was an offensive blackhole managing just 4 of 12 from the field.

Even Reggie Bullock, who had been in scorching hot form coming into the game, wasn’t unhindered by the team’s awful play.

He still found ways to score 14 points but made 1 of 4 three-point attempts and was 4 of 13 overall from the field.

Stanley Johnson may have been the biggest positive out of any Piston starter.

While his 10 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists don’t seem like much, when given the chance he was able to offer the team a rare spark and was the only Pistons player to play more than 4 minutes and end the game with a positive plus/minus (+1).

After the Blake Griffin-era started with such promise the Pistons are back to riding a losing skid.

They’re going to need to do some serious soul-searching and improving before they face the Atlanta Hawks again if they want to avoid taking a four-game losing streak into the All-Star break.