Detroit Pistons vs Brooklyn Nets 2019-20 Season Preview

The Detroit Pistons faced the Brooklyn Nets three times last season with the Pistons only coming away with one victory. Will they preform better this year?

The Detroit Pistons opened the season last year against a Brooklyn Nets team that was more or less in the same paradigm – NBA purgatory. Blake Griffin was able to make his first appearance on opening night as a Pistons and did not disappoint as he lead the team in scoring with 26 points. For the opposition, Caris LeVert lead the Nets with 27 points as he continued to push the narrative that he could be a star in this league.

Andre Drummond also got out to a booming start with 24 points and 20 rebounds, as he began to become accustomed to a 20/20 stat line throughout the season. Jared Dudley only nabbed one point in 36 total minutes played for the Nets, and the Detroit Pistons looked pretty sound on both ends of the floor in a 103-100 win.

Fortunes weren’t running high for Detroit in the next showdown however as the Nets emerged victorious in a thrilling 120-119 overtime win. The game was 14 days after their first face-off, and the Pistons had begun to landslide. After winning their first four games, they lost their third consecutive game.

Here’s what the biggest problem was: Teams were finally figuring out how to guard the new rendition of Griffin we had been seeing. The Boston Celtics, (who the Pistons had played in their two previous games) had begun to double team him every single trip down the floor. This would force Griffin to either play hero ball and inevitably commit a turnover, or force the ball to the weak side and have the opposing team dare the Pistons to shoot the ball – and they would – and they would miss.

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This formula as simple as it sounds, absolutely killed the Detroit Pistons. Spencer Dinwiddie hit the eventual game-sealing, 3-point shot with 7.1 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Nets the win.

Finally, we move to what may have been the most demoralizing loss of the season. Both the Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets were in the midst of a playoff push. The Pistons went on the road and to this day there is no true verbiage one can create that can properly articulate what happened that night.

The Nets absolutely floored Detroit. The game was over seemingly from the jump, as Brooklyn cruised to a 28-point, 103-75 victory. The Pistons were overwhelmed in every facet, and Drummond was their leading scorer with only 13 points.

To add insult to injury, the Nets went into a zone defense several times throughout the game, and crushed the Pistons every single time.