Detroit Pistons: 3 takeaways from loss to the Trail Blazers

The Detroit Pistons were routed by the Portland Trail Blazers, who got a bit of history from their big man.

Enes Kanter ended the game with 24 points and a franchise-record 30 rebounds on a night the Pistons’ bigs would rather forget.

Rookie Isaiah Stewart has been drawing early comparisons to Pistons’ legend Ben Wallace, but I can tell you this: In 1,000 years Big Ben wouldn’t give up 30 boards to Enes Kanter, or five Enes Kanters combined.

Beef Stew is still a rookie but he and Plumlee allowed one guy to nearly out-rebound their entire team single-handedly.

It wasn’t all bad for the Detroit Pistons, who got a really nice game out of Josh Jackson, who hit 5-of-6 from long range and ended the night with 21 points, and more importantly, two assists to only one turnover.

The Pistons now have two in a row against the Clippers, so should be able to hold on to the third-worst record in the NBA and maybe even gain a game or on their tanking competition.

Here are 3 takeaways from the loss to Portland.

Detroit Pistons: Dwane Casey had a short leash with Killian Hayes

Dwane Casey has been consistent about one thing all season: The young guys have to earn minutes. Casey has shown he is not afraid to bench anyone and that includes seventh-pick, Killian Hayes.

Hayes has had Pistons’ fans excited but this was not one of his best efforts.

Hayes had a couple of bad early turnovers that got him yanked from the game and he didn’t return, logging just 17 minutes.

Hayes had also tweaked his hip in the last game and the Pistons were on the first night of a back-to-back, so there were other reasons to limit Hayes’ minutes but the four turnovers didn’t help.

It will be interesting to see if Hayes plays at all in the next game or if the Pistons continue to sit him on the second game of back-to-backs to limit his exposure in the last 19 games.