The team with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons, crushed the team with the best record, the Philadelphia 76ers, 119-104, on Monday night.
On Friday’s NBA Betting story, I thought Joel Embiid would not play and predicted a Detroit Pistons victory. I was just 48 hours early on both predictions.
The result was really pretty predictable.
Embiid had to score 33 points for the 76ers to pull out a four-point win over Detroit on Saturday. Without him, the Sixers became unglued, and Ben Simmons might as well as sat out too, for all he contributed (except for getting Josh Jackson ejected).
There were plenty of good things about the Detroit Pistons performance. So here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Detroit Pistons: The Good
Delon Wright: It is now been a couple weeks since Delon Wright was handed the starting point guard position with the injury to Killian Hayes. It appears he is starting to get comfortable with the move.
The only other time Wright had been a regular starter was during his time in Memphis, and he played well then too. He might be someone who needs a lot of minutes to be at his best.
Wright had a career-high 28 points and also contributed nine rebounds and seven assists.
D-Wright feeling all types of right tonight. pic.twitter.com/dNbmf43cAu
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) January 26, 2021
Wayne Ellington: Going against his hometown team inspires Wayne Ellington, apparently. In two games against the 76ers, he made 10-of-15 three-point shots.
Ellington’s threes sparked the Pistons early in this game to a fast start. Detroit had a 17-4 lead and Ben Simmons was on the bench with three fouls. He finished with 20 points on Monday.
Ellington, a career 37.8% three-point shooter (which is pretty good) is shooting an insane 51.8% on threes this season.
Ellington was a crazy +31 in the game. He also had three assists, as he let the shots come to him (and the 76ers left him pretty open).
Jerami Grant: It was good to see Jerami Grant bounce back after the worst game of his career in Detroit. After going 3-for-19, against the same team Grant scored 25 points. He also had eight rebounds and five assists for an all-around effort.
With Grant back on track, it opened up a lot of things for the other players, which led Detroit, one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA, to making 50% of its shots.
Josh Jackson: Hey, he is from Detroit, so it made sense that Josh Jackson could turn into a ‘Bad Boy’. He got tossed for throwing the basketball to the referee in an angry fashion (he did not try to throw AT the ref) with 7:33 left in the game. He already had a tech for verbally mixing it up with Simmons.
There also was almost a fight with the 76ers’ Mike Scott, who was in street clothes as he was out with a knee injury.
In other words, it was a lot of fun for Pistons fans!
Until he got ejected, Jackson was having a good game. He scored 12 points in 20 minutes along with seven rebounds.
Detroit Pistons: The Bad
Pistons turnovers: If the 76ers had been playing even mediocre, the game could have gotten tight thanks to the Pistons constantly turning the ball over.
Most of the turnovers were of the careless variety, bad passes or putting the ball on the floor in traffic. The 76ers played awful, but still scored 33 points off of 18 Pistons turnovers.
Detroit got away with being loose with the ball, this time.
Detroit Pistons: The Ugly
Blake Griffin: It has only been two years since Blake Griffin scored 50 points against the 76ers. On Monday, he had seven points and shot 2-for-8.
Maybe it is best to see his play through fresh eyes. Ky Carlin is a Michigan native but he covers the 76ers for USA Today:
Blake Griffin really looks so out of it. It’s crazy that just 2 years ago he was an All-NBA Team member and dragged the Pistons to the playoffs. He’s got 4 points on 7 shots and 5 FTA.
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) January 26, 2021
76ers without Embiid: The Philadelphia 76ers (12-6) have played four games this season without Joel Embiid. They are 0-4 and have been blown out all four times.
Embiid has been touted as an MVP candidate. This game made his case, as the Sixers have the best record in the Eastern Conference, even though the rest of the team is a hot mess without him.
After a week of tough losses, it was nice to see the Pistons just pound a team. Detroit (4-13) led the game from the opening tap to the final buzzer.
Next up is a game at Cleveland on Wednesday. It will be another meeting with old friend Andre Drummond and site of one of their toughest losses.