3 huge overreactions to the Pistons’ blowout loss to the Knicks
The Detroit Pistons were blown out by the New York Knicks 117-96 in the first preseason game of the season.
Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s only preseason, so before you feel the need to remind me in the comments, I am well aware that IT IS ONLY PRESEASON.
But the Pistons were sloppy and bad even for a preseason game, and some of their biggest flaws from last season already reared their ugly heads.
There were some positives of course. Jaden Ivey mostly looked comfortable in his first game and led Detroit in scoring with an efficient 16 points. He flashed his otherworldly speed, but also showed patience on some nice hesitation moves that got him to the rim.
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Bojan Bogdanovic is already paying off, as he knocked down 3-of-5 from long range, showing why that trade was a big win for Detroit.
Isaiah Stewart looked comfortable shooting 3-pointers, but only grabbed one rebound in over 20 minutes and continued having trouble catching the ball and finishing in traffic when Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey drew in the defense and set him up.
It was only the first preseason game, but it was ugly, so here are three overreactions.
The Detroit Pistons still can’t take care of the ball or shoot!
Two areas of focus this season will be reducing turnovers and increasing 3-point efficiency, so this first preseason game did not inspire a ton of confidence.
The Pistons were 20th in the NBA in turnovers last season and coughed it up 21 times last night against the Knicks, including four for Cade Cunningham and three for Saddiq Bey, who was flat-out awful and looked like he was playing with a greased ball in the first half.
Cade coughed it up on the very first play of the game and it was the type of turnover he absolutely has to cut out, as it was just a lazy pass and not even that well defended.
Luckily, the slow-paced Knicks only scored 20 points off those turnovers, but most teams are going to bury you if you turn it over more than 20 times in a game.
The Pistons were also terrible from 3-point range last season, coming at or near the bottom of the league in nearly every 3-point shooting category. Things weren’t any different last night, as they hit just 13-42 for 31 percent as a team.
If Detroit turns the ball over this much, and shoots this poorly again, they will be in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes very soon. Luckily, this game didn’t count.