Pistons get stung repeatedly by Hornets, lose 114-98

It was yet another lifeless performance from the Detroit Pistons as they were blown out by the Charlotte Hornets 114-98, making it their fifth loss in their last six games.

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The Detroit Pistons were never in the game, finding themselves down by double digits early and things only getting worse from there.

It was yet another frustrating defensive performance that saw the Pistons allow the Charlotte Hornets to shoot 45.7 percent from the three-point line.

The most concerning thing about the Hornets hot shooting was just how many of their attempts came from wide-open looks.

Five Hornets players hit multiple threes, with Nicolas Batum the most lethal, knocking down 4 of 7 on his way to putting up 15 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and a block.

With the deficit constantly ballooning you’d be forgiven for thinking Kemba Walker had been putting on a show, however that wasn’t the case.

Walker had a relatively quiet game by his standards, finishing with just 17 points and 6 assists.

The real damage was done early by Dwight Howard, who seemed set on turning back the clock to his days under Stan Van Gundy in Orlando.

Howard managed to score 17 points on 80 percent shooting, while also pulling down 12 rebounds in just 23 minutes.

The warning signs that this would not be a pretty game for the Pistons came early, with the team trailing by 13 points at the end of the first quarter and managing to score just a lifeless 19 points in the first 12 minutes.

Things only spiralled out of control further in the second period.

The Hornets started to really heat up, stretching the lead to 30 points midway through the quarter and outscoring the Pistons 38-27.

There was a slight attempt to get back into the game during the third quarter, and the deficit was even cut to just 16 points at one point.

However, the Hornets put together one more offensive burst to close out the third quarter and put the game to bed for good.

The frustrating and disappointing play on the court was matched by equally frustrating coaching moves from Stan Van Gundy.

Van Gundy insisted on going to Jameer Nelson as the backup point guard again and was met with another horrendous performance that forced Van Gundy to bring in Dwight Buycks at the end of the third quarter

Nelson scored 0 points alongside 1 rebound, 1 assist and 2 turnovers during his court time.

Staggeringly, he managed to finish with a -17 in plus/minus despite playing just 6 minutes and 21 seconds of game time.

Van Gundy’s other frustrating decision was to bring Langston Galloway back into the rotation, but at the cost of benching Luke Kennard.

On a night where the Pistons would have been unable to hit water if they fell out of a boat (4 of 18 from three-point range), Van Gundy decided Kennard, who is shooting 40 percent from three, wasn’t worth playing meaningful minutes.

Only when the game was well and truly over did he finally call Kennard’s number.

Even ignoring the Pistons’ horrible three-point shooting on the night, the bench unit desperately needed a shooter of Kennard’s calibre.

Before Van Gundy waved the white flag and emptied the bench James Ennis was the team’s only bench scorer.

He put up 9 points, while the rest of his teammates managed nothing.

Buycks and Henry Ellenson finished with 12 and 7 points respectively as they tried to stake their claim for a spot in Van Gundy’s rotation.

There were only two potential bright spots for the Pistons on the night.

The first and most pleasing positive was that Blake Griffin actually looked solid on offence and might be starting to click.

He had 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, which doesn’t seem amazing on paper.

But the fact that he was 10 of 18 from the field is something to pay attention to.

The shots he took were a lot better and smarter than they had been recently and he managed to restrict himself to just three attempts from behind the arc.

The other positive was Andre Drummond showing off exactly why he was picked to be in the skills challenge over the All-Star weekend.

Outside of those two points, there isn’t much positivity to take away from this game.

The Pistons fall to a 28-31 record now as they travel up north to face the Toronto Raptors tomorrow night.