Detroit Pistons: Good news/bad news from the preseason finale
The good news is that the Detroit Pistons played their best game of the preseason last night, but the bad news is that they still lost.
Wins and losses don’t matter in preseason, so it was nice to see them play better, though the Pistons still struggled mightily in certain areas.
They showed some of the same concerning problems, but also had their best moments, especially in the second and third quarters, when Detroit scored a combined 71 points and briefly tied the game.
Unfortunately they were flat-out awful in the other two quarters, showing the type of inconsistency you’d expect from a young team in the preseason.
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Even the good things came with a splash of bad, so let’s play a little game of good news/bad news with the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons: Good/bad news from the preseason finale
Good! The Pistons got a ton of open 3-pointers
Bad! They made 28 percent of them
Detroit shot 52 (yes you read that correctly) 3-point shots last night, doing their best impersonation of the James Harden-era Rockets. The good news is that most of them were wide open, especially in the first quarter.
The bad news is that this was by design, as the Grizzlies literally weren’t guarding the 3-point line and just daring the Pistons to take them. I think this is a strategy we’ll see a lot this season until Detroit shows they can consistently knock down long-range shots.
Something has to give here, as the only times Detroit looked comfortable were on transition 3’s when one of the guards drew in the defense and kicked it out. Will coach Casey continue this type of offense or will be see the Pistons try to work the ball to the hoop a bit more? Cade Cunningham looked his best in the mid-range last night and the offense should really start from there.