3 takeaways from the Detroit Pistons 127-106 win over the Sacramento Kings

Laying the Wood

In the absence of Andre Drummond, who sat out tonight’s game after having one of his teeth knocked out in Washington, the minutes at the center position were allocated to Thon Maker and Christian Wood.

While this does admittedly open up a lot of space around the rim and hinders Detroit’s ability to rebound at the rate that they normally would, (which isn’t too high as it is) it’s interesting to see what a Pistons team may look like without Drummond.

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Much like Jackson, Wood didn’t disappoint tonight either. He scored 23 points and didn’t miss a single shot. Though he only managed to grab 3 rebounds, which plays into the previous point that the Pistons were going to struggle on the boards, and they did.

The reoccurring theme this season has been that Wood always makes the most of his minutes, more often than not that seems to be the case. Tonight being no exception, he furthered the belief that he’ll be a key piece to this franchise moving forward.

You were seeing infrequent lapses on both ends of the floor relative to what we’ve become accustomed to. There was cohesion and fluidity for Detroit when he was in the game.

He failed to record a block tonight, but that was mainly due to the Kings inability to drive to the basket. They were too often playing along the perimeter or taking long contested two-pointers, so Wood’s night consisted of more closeouts than meetings at the rim.

The Pistons are beginning to build momentum, and Wood has been a tremendous help.