Detroit Pistons’ stock exchange: Recapping the season’s third week
The Detroit Pistons are 4-6 after three weeks – all without Blake Griffin. He returns on Monday but here are the team’s trends from last week.
The Detroit Pistons are missing Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose and Reggie Jackson, are one of three teams to already play 10 games and have had two back-to-backs, so the fact that they are 4-6 is not the worst outcome after Week 3.
Detroit had a frustrating week, getting blown out by a bad Wizards team and losing to the Pacers in their third meeting of the season. Turnovers continued to plague the Pistons in their losses, with 19 against the Wizards and 15 against the Pacers.
Detroit is now 25th in the NBA in turnover percentage and only 19th in assist to turnover ratio. Both Andre Drummond and Markieff Morris have seen their turnover numbers go up with increased usage, which should balance to normal when Detroit starts getting healthy and they aren’t asked to do so much on the offensive end.
Detroit did have a nice win against the Knicks, with 37 assists and great shooting, especially by Tony Snell, who went 9-for-9 from the field in his most meaningful game as a Piston. This game showed two things: Detroit is capable of having an efficient offense that moves the ball and is a joy to watch and, as a bonus, the Knicks are terrible.
Friday’s loss to the Pacers was another of the frustrating variety, as the Pistons took a 15-point lead in the first quarter behind a red-hot Luke Kennard, then proceeded to score just 37 points in the next two quarters combined, putting themselves in too big a hole to climb out of.
It is frustrating to lose winnable games, but Detroit has been competitive every night, even missing three key players, so a lot of credit has to be given to Dwane Casey for keeping his team in the mix and to Drummond, who has played out of his mind and carried the team.
It was another up and down week for the Pistons, but things are starting to move in the right direction. Here are the trends after the third week of the season.