Detroit Pistons suffer fourth straight loss against Pelicans
By Joye Pruitt
The Detroit Pistons could not hold off the New Orleans Pelicans and drop their fourth straight which means it is time to hit the panic button.
The Detroit Pistons needed to get back to their winning ways and the New Orleans Pelicans came into LCA with a few demons of their own.
Even with Anthony Davis out most of the game after a collision with Blake Griffin, the Pistons fell in their fourth straight against the Pelicans, 108-116. Even Griffin’s 35-point night could not avoid the inevitable.
A glaring component of the loss was guard play or in the Detroit Pistons’ case, the lack thereof.
New Orleans’ starting guards, Tim Frazier and Jrue Holiday, combined for 51 points shooting 18-of-27 from the field. Frazier ended the contest with 8 assists and Holiday with 5.
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The Pistons’ starting guards, Bruce Brown and Reggie Jackson, logged nine points on 30.7 shooting from the field with 7 assists from Jackson. Not much more can be said than that.
Coming into the season, everyone understood that the Detroit Pistons do not have superstar guards. Or even elite. This season’s focus has been to utilize Blake Griffin as a point forward therefore the primary ball-handler.
But, ball movement, production and defense have become soft spots throughout the guard position for Detroit and those fatal flaws were exposed Sunday afternoon against the Pelicans’ backcourt.
And then there was Andre Drummond. As I mentioned before, Anthony Davis was out for most of the game.
His hip and Blake Griffin’s knee appeared to collide early on and Davis would find himself sidelined for a chunk of the contest. This could have been a signature moment for Drummond.
The numbers would lead anyone to believe the Pistons’ center to be exempt from blame for the loss.
23 points. 19 rebounds. One steal. One block.
Actually watching the game yields different results.
Drummond found himself in poor defensive position multiple times in the match up. Sometimes because of how New Orleans’ bigs can stretch a defense. Then again, there were several times Drummond just looked too lazy to fight through a Jrue Holiday-screen and contest.
The all-star center became aggressive towards the end of the bout, just giving credence to the fact that he could have been doing this from tip-off.
There’s just something about a center of Andre Drummond’s skill shooting 10-of-23 from the field that makes anyone uneasy. Especially when a lot of those misses are point-blank range.
The brightest spot of the game for the Detroit Pistons was Langston Galloway. Galloway didn’t start the game off hot. In the first quarter, he struggled shooting 1-of-3.
Yet, by the end of the second quarter, the guard appeared to turn things around, making four of his five shots in the quarter.
With Ish Smith, Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock out Pistons’ depth has taken a huge hit at the wing position and Galloway’s surge provides much needed assistance. Detroit had hoped the Glenn Robinson III experiment would prove more fruitful.
Robinson’s zero-point performance in his starting role against the New Orleans Pelicans may have shut the door on those expectations.
It is time to hit the panic button. Not just because of where the Detroit Pistons are right now. But, the personnel is lacking and injured. The team is almost completely reliant on Blake Griffin for consistent, effective gamesmanship.
That well is running dry. As great as he is, Griffin just isn’t enough.
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Coach Dwane Casey will get back to the drawing board and watch more film. Hopefully, Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers shows that he can count on someone other than No. 23.