The Detroit Pistons were among the league’s best records at beating up on terrible teams, but lack the firepower to compete with the league’s best.
The first time I’d ever seen the Golden State Warriors in person was the night of the Ben Wallace jersey retirement on January 16, 2016. That year, the Warriors won 73 games, an NBA record, and only suffered nine defeats. One of those nine was at the hands of the Detroit Pistons.
That season for the Pistons in 2015-16 is remembered for their valiant effort against the Cavaliers in the first round sweep and that night they beat the greatest team the basketball world had seen up to that point.
There was a similar feeling on December 1st, 2018 when the Pistons once again defeated the mighty Warriors 111-102 at Little Caesars Arena. It felt like validation for a team that had now won seven out of eight, beating the Raptors, Rockets, and now the Warriors in that span. The first full season of the Blake Griffin era was off to a rousing success.
However, the season took a dramatic turn after the Warriors game and the Pistons went 28-34 the rest of the way. That early run had proved to be a fluke, especially when you look at their record against good teams.
Detroit went 15-27 against teams with winning records, which is the worst amongst playoffs teams this season. Even the lowly Dallas Mavericks had a better record against over .500 teams (18-29) and they only won 33 games all season.
However, they still had enough top end talent in Griffin and Drummond to go 26-14 against below .500 opponents. Their record against the 5 worst teams in the NBA was 15-2 (4-0 NYK, 3-1 CLE, 2-0 PHO, 4-0 CHI, 2-1 ATL).
There’s obviously nothing wrong with beating up on the teams you’re supposed to. But there’s no way Detroit can count on being successful without consistently beating better teams.
What’s more puzzling is how a team can be 3-0 against the Toronto Raptors, who all year was the second best team in the East and 0-4 against a team in a similar position as the Pistons in the Charlotte Hornets.
In order to break out from the perpetual eight seed position and go for home-court advantage in the 1st round, the Pistons will need to be better against teams in direct competition with them.