3 takeaways from Detroit Pistons 117-111 loss to Philadelphia 76ers

The Detroit Pistons lost focus late in the game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Everybody expected a loss before the game but everybody was disappointed right after.

With Blake Griffin out, the Pistons were lucky that Joel Embiid was ruled out early Saturday. Unfortunately, Reggie Jackson has been struggling with back pain himself. Dwane Casey didn’t want to disturb chemistry too much and elected to bring Rose off the bench.

The Pistons started the game with Tim Frazier, Bruce Brown Jr, Tony Snell, Markieff Morris and Andre Drummond. That lineup struggled mightily on offense, scoring only two points before Luke Kennard came into the game to provide a scoring punch.

The bench brought them back, led by Derrick Rose. That’s been the case in every game so far in Griffin’s absence. The team was empowered by the former MVP and was able to match Philadelphia’s intensity.

Drummond struggled with foul trouble but Morris finally came to play and led the Pistons in scoring in the first half with 14 points to give the Pistons a three-point lead. Casey trusted Thon Maker and Christian Wood to handle the minutes with Drummond out of the game and they responded quite encouragingly.

The Pistons started the second half strong, raising the lead up to 13 points but nobody was able to stop former Piston Tobias Harris, who scored 29 points overall, from cutting the lead to one point. Mike Scott hit a three to tie the game at the end of the third.

In the fourth quarter, the Pistons lost focus, taking ill-advised shots and turning the ball over, and the 76ers were able to take advantage in transition. Al Horford made the necessary shots to secure the lead and the Pistons suffered the loss.

So let’s dive into the three major things we took away from last night’s game.

Honorable mention: Johnny Kane subbed in for the play-by-play and he did an amazing job to fill in for the legendary George Blaha.