Detroit Pistons: Luke Kennard’s best game of the 2019-2020 season

Kennard was setting himself up for a breakout year for the Detroit Pistons before suffering an injury that ended his season. What was his best game?

Heading into the 2019-2020 NBA season the expectations were higher than they’ve been in recent years for the Detroit Pistons. Coming off of a 41 win season in which they returned to the playoffs, fans were hoping to build on that success.

There was uncertainty surrounding the health of Blake Griffin, but it was believed that Detroit had constructed a roster that could get them over the hump and maybe come away with a playoff series win.

The tone was set early thanks to the performances of Luke Kennard and Andre Drummond on opening night against the Indiana Pacers.

It was largely expected that Kennard would begin to take a leap this season as one of the Pistons top scoring options, and that his confidence with the ball in his hands would improve.

It took until 2:13 remained in the first quarter before he began to get rolling, hitting his first basket from the perimeter after getting Doug McDermott to bite on a shot fake.

Kennard’s low dribble coming off of screens was allowing him to create space and although he only hit two jump shots in the first half, he was effective as a play maker.

Heading into the third quarter he had only totaled 7 points before catching a pass from Tony Snell, getting a flawless screen set by Thon Maker, and hitting a 28-foot step back three.

Thanks to heroics from Drummond and Derrick Rose, the Pistons found themselves clawing back into the game. One of the more underrated parts of Kennard’s overall game is his ability to get to the basket. People too often assume he’s exclusively a perimeter shooter, but he’s not.

His first step off the dribble has improved every single year, and while it’s still far from elite he’s showing that he’s capable of developing a more versatile approach on offense.

His mid-range game is also improving, and he’s shown that he can pretty much pull a shot attempt from anywhere on the floor.

On this night Kennard took quite a few trips to the free throw line, making 8 of his 10 attempts. He scored points 19 through 24 all at the line before hitting the dagger and effectively ending the game with this three-pointer.

Kennard ended his night with 30 points on 61.5 percent shooting, which included an astonishing 66.7 percent from distance. He only totaled 3 rebounds and 2 assists, so the aforementioned playmaking abilities weren’t on display as much as they would be later in the year.

Hitting the 30 points threshold on opening night gave fans hope that things would turn out for the better. Unfortunately however, nothing could have been further from the truth.

In December the Pistons announced that Kennard was going to miss an extended period of time with bilateral knee tendinitis, and leading up to the suspension of the league in March, he had yet to make his return.

Heading into next season, fans are hoping to see him emulate the same success that he saw on opening night.