Breaking down the Detroit Pistons 104-81 loss to the Utah Jazz

The Detroit Pistons have suffered yet another loss which makes it eight losses in their last ten games. Tonight it was at the hands of the Utah Jazz. They fell 104-81.

For the opening 24 minutes of the game the Detroit Pistons seemed as if they were a truly formidable opponent to the Utah Jazz. It was arguably the best defensive showing that we’ve seen from Detroit this year, and the score was an easy indicator – Detroit lead 40-39 at the half.

So yes, admittedly the Pistons were having their fair share of struggles as well. Both teams were forcing the other to take shots that they didn’t want to take. They were seemingly always contested looks and any play in the low post was met with bodies and ferocity. Andre Drummond and Rudy Gobert were battling it out down low in the first half.

Bruce Brown was performing exceptionally well on defense, and Derrick Rose was able to drive to the basket with ease on almost every offensive touch, something that Pistons fans have become accustomed to this season. It was a methodical, gritty, and inspired first half of basketball.

The Pistons nearly had more players inactive with injuries than they did actually playing. It was a miracle that they were able to somewhat control the pace of the game and meticulously beat a legitimate team.

So what happened?

As has become customary, Detroit came out flat in the second half. They allowed the Jazz to open the third quarter on a 15-2 run, which included forcing the Pistons to commit six turnovers in their opening seven possessions. Detroit had committed six turnovers in the entire first half – and proceeded to equal that number in a span of mere minutes.

The Jazz are one of the top three-point shooting teams in the entire league and Detroit held them to just two in the first half. Utah responded by hitting five in the third quarter alone, but shot just 38.5 percent from downtown for the game.

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The Pistons lost all the offensive cohesion that they had in the first half. They began to operate too tentatively in a half court setting and could never get quality looks at the basket. Conversely whenever they did get a good look they just couldn’t find a way to get the ball in the basket. They were out-executed in the second half, which was to be expected given Utah’s talent but felt slightly more disheartening than what was expected due to that aforementioned first half performance. It felt like there was hope, and it was gone quicker than it arrived.

On a separate note, it’s become a constant frustration among the fans that whenever the younger players like Sekou Doumbouya and Louis King are in uniform for the Pistons they don’t see the floor until there’s maybe two or three minutes left in the game. This would be fine if the game was within reach up until that point, but that’s generally not been the case. Whenever they do get to play, the game was lost long before they checked in.

To an extent it makes sense because you want to make sure your main guys are getting the minutes they deserve in order to create some fluidity for future games and maybe create some momentum in order to build some confidence. However on the flip side one can argue that when you’re down 20 points with seven minutes left in a game, maybe the core players should head to the bench to avoid an unnecessary injury.

We’re not advocating that these guys play 20 minutes a night, but something other than “just go wind out the clock” may prove to be advantageous for their development. It may give them a small jump start.