What went wrong for the Detroit Pistons against Miami?

The Detroit Pistons made too many mistakes on their way to their fifth straight loss of the season. What went wrong against Miami?

The Detroit Pistons dropped their fifth straight game of the season last night. This time it was at the hands of the Miami Heat.

The Heat were another team that came into last night’s game desperately needing a win. After starting the season 3-2, they had dropped three straight before winning last night’s game.

Josh Richardson led the way for Miami, scoring 27 points and adding eight rebounds. Point guard Goran Dragic also had himself a night. He scored 21 points, added seven rebounds and six assists.

The Detroit Pistons’ two big men made this game close for them. Blake Griffin scored 24 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Andre Drummond had 25 points and 24 rebounds, his fourth 20-20 game of the season so far.

Reggie Jackson also scored 25 points.

Their efforts were not enough last night. They had a chance to win last night’s game with a three-point shot in the corner from Glenn Robinson. He had a chance to be the hero in his first start of the season.

Jackson put the ball on the floor and went to the basket, drawing the defense in. This gave Robinson a clean look in the corner for the lead with little time left.

He scored 16 points and shot 50 percent from the field last night. You have to live with that miss sometimes.

Overall, it just wasn’t enough. Here’s what went wrong last night.

Struggling bench continues to struggle

This was a problem last year for the Detroit Pistons as well. They were unable to get much from the guys coming off the bench.

The Pistons were outscored in this area once again. They had just 25 points from their bench while the Heat had 44 points. Dwyane Wade led their reserves with 18 points.

The bigger issue is Langston Galloway had 21 of those 25 points on his own. Ish Smith had the other four points.

He probably had his worst game of the season. He scored those four points in 26 minutes of action. He went just 2-9 from the field.

Stanley Johnson‘s first game off the bench went like many of his other games this season. He scored no points in 14 minutes of action and finished with a -21 plus/minus which was by far the worst between both teams.

Zaza Pachulia has been able to provide head coach Dwane Casey valuable minutes early on this season off the bench. Last night was easily his worst game of the season as well.

Inconsistency on offense continues

The Detroit Pistons have the tools to be effective on the offensive end of the floor. This season its been tough to get going.

They’re 28th in field goal percentage and 29th in three-point field goal percentage through nine games. That is just not going to get it done.

Last night was no different. The Pistons shot 31 percent from the perimeter and just 41 percent from the field.

Right now, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher to me.

In the first quarter, the Pistons jumped all over the Heat at one point and had their offense clicking. They scored 11 straight and got out to a 21-14 lead, looking like they might just put the game away early on.

Then they hit a dry spell. It happened between the third and fourth quarter as well, resulting in a double-digit deficit at a critical time.

These dry spells are going to continue costing them games. I understand that Casey is still trying to figure out his most effective lineups.

However, we’re almost ten games into this season. It’s time to buckle down and get it together. Guys look like they’re hoisting up last-second shots every other time down the floor.

The little things

These things can’t go unmentioned. The Detroit Pistons have been failing to consistently get some of the little things right this season.

Free throws were a perfect example of that last night. They were just 18 -28 from the line last night which comes out to around 68 percent. They knock down a few more of those and we might not even be talking about what went wrong last night.

The Pistons haven’t been a turnover-happy team this year but they certainly gave the ball away too much last night.

They had 20 turnovers. It did feel like every time they turned the ball over, the Heat were able to capitalize on it. You can’t turn the ball over 20 times and expect to win.

The Detroit Pistons did a lot of things wrong last night. They will continue to lose games against respectable teams playing like this.