The Detroit Pistons went 1-3 in week ten of the regular season, resulting in a free fall across the power rankings’ boards.
Week ten in the NBA was rough on the Detroit Pistons. A 1-3 record resulted in them dropping among the many weekly power rankings that get released.
The only team they were able to beat in that time was the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even in that game, the Pistons faced a 15-point deficit at one point in the game.
They’re three losses came from the Milwaukee Bucks, the Charlotte Hornets, and the Atlanta Hawks. Two of those are detrimental.
The Hornets have now won three out of their four games they play against each other this season. That means they now own a tiebreaker over the Pistons in playoff seeding, meaning they would end up with the higher seed if the two teams had the same record at the end of the season.
Losing to the Atlanta Hawks struck a nerve across the many publications that come out with these weekly power rankings.
Well, it’s unacceptable. We’ve said from the beginning of the season that the Pistons will have to consistently beat the inferior teams in the eastern conference if they want a playoff spot.
One bad quarter or a slow start have been the result of a lot of Piston losses. That was the recurring theme of last week.
Against the Bucks, the Pistons were outscored 30-16 in the second quarter and went into the locker room at halftime down by 12 points.
The Pistons were outscored 28-21 in first quarter and 29-22 in the second quarter of their game against the Hawks.
In the ESPN Week 11 power rankings, the Pistons fell from the 16th spot to the 19th spot. Chris Herring believes a lot of that has to do with the team missing one specific player.
"The Pistons wish for Ish Smith to be healthy again, or to trade for another creator on offense. The Pistons have been awful of late, and you can almost trace the struggles back to when Smith first went down because of a groin strain."
CBS Sports had the Pistons as one of their biggest movers in this week’s power rankings. That’s not in a good way. Reid Forgrave credit’s all of the Pistons’ struggles to their back court.
"Blake Griffin has been awesome; you could argue that he’s having the best season of his career. Andre Drummond has been good. But the Pistons’ backcourt will always put a limit on their ceiling, in the regular season and certainly in the playoffs. Players have come out of nowhere before in the middle of seasons, Jeremy Lin being the most obvious example. Something like that at the point guard position would be a Christmas miracle in Detroit."
They went from 17th to 23rd in the rankings. They also come in at 23rd in the power rankings for the official website of the NBA. John Schuhmann believes the roots of the Pistons’ problems has been poor shooting and a high turnover rate.
"They rank 28th offensively (101.7 points scored per 100 possessions) over the 11 games, having scored less than a point per possession in games this past weekend against teams – Charlotte and Atlanta – that rank 16th and 23rd in defensive efficiency, respectively. The Pistons have been a poor shooting team all season, but rank 25th in turnover rate (15.8 per 100 possessions) over the last three weeks, having ranked 10th (14.0 per 100) prior to that."
Look, the Detroit Pistons have been losing to a lot of good teams throughout the month of December. That’s what has brought them back to earth.
However, multiple losses to the Hornets and now a loss to Atlanta has many concerned about this team. The month of January doesn’t exactly lighten up for Detroit either.
The Detroit Pistons have to buckle down and start playing better if they want to stay in the playoff picture this season.
Here’s what their week of games looks like:
vs. Washington Wizards
@ Indiana Pacers
@ Orlando Magic