Detroit Pistons: 3 positives from loss to the Chicago Bulls

Cade Cunningham #2 and Hamidou Diallo #6 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Cade Cunningham #2 and Hamidou Diallo #6 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
3 of 3
Detroit Pistons, Isaiah Stewart
Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine (8) dribbles the ball as Detroit Pistons center Isaiah Stewart (28) defends Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Pistons’ defense is in mid-season form

I thought both teams looked great defensively, which was the cause of a lot of the bad shooting.

The Bulls shot horribly as well, and other than Zach LaVine, the Pistons held them in check for most of the night.

I didn’t really like Casey’s plan of using Frank Jackson on LaVine, as he is too small and LaVine was just shooting over him. Even though he played poorly offensively, I would have liked to see Josh Jackson get more of a chance to try and stop LaVine.

But overall the Pistons’ defense was great, especially on the interior, where they had active hands and were getting a lot of deflections. The Bulls were having a hard time passing the ball without the Pistons getting a hand on it, which is a good sign for a team that is building around their defense.

The Pistons offense is going to struggle a lot of nights, especially with Cade out, but that level of defense will get them some wins, so I was happy with the effort and energy on that end.

It would have been nice to get a “W” there, but the Pistons can’t be too upset, as they played a hard, competitive game and came up just short. I know that sounds a lot like last season but the difference is that last season there weren’t adding Cade Cunningham.