The Detroit Pistons dropped their opener to the Chicago Bulls in a competitive game with plenty of defense and not much shooting.
The Pistons were without number one pick Cade Cunningham, who is nursing a sprained ankle and may miss the entire road trip according to Troy Weaver.
The Pistons will try to stay afloat without their young star, but will have to do some things differently if they want to get a “W” on the road against a good Bulls team.
The Detroit Pistons will need another solid team defensive effort but also need to change some things up to try and score more points and slow down Zach LaVine, who dropped 34 points in the first game.
The Detroit Pistons need better shot selection
The Pistons only shot 40 percent in the first game against the Bulls, including a pathetic 21 percent from long range.
Part of this was that the Pistons just had a cold night shooting, but they also took a lot of bad shots. The Pistons forced things a few times, took contested 3-point attempts and drove the ball into the teeth of the defense, which resulted in some bad turnovers and wild shots.
Without Cade Cunningham, the Pistons are light on playmakers, so they will need to trust their ball movement, be patient and work for better shots than they did in game one, when they often settled for contested jumpers.
If the Detroit Pistons don’t shoot better this time around they will start the season 0-2 against one of their biggest rivals, and this begins with getting better shots.
The Pistons don’t have the one-one-one scorers to play “hero ball” so they need to keep the ball moving, make the extra pass and work for good looks.