The Detroit Pistons dropped back-to-back games on the road against the Knicks and Pacers and there wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about.
The loss to the Knicks was just a complete blowout and in last night’s defeat by the Pacers, the Pistons fell apart in the second half after a promising start.
There were some positives from last night’s loss, as Detroit finally saw the ball go into the hoop a few times from long range and Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey played well.
But it wasn’t enough to slow down Indiana, who scored 72 points in the second half last night behind 27 points from rookie Bennedict Mathurin.
The first 10 games of the Pistons schedule are brutal (they aren’t even to the tough part yet) so it’s very possible they are going to start the season in a big hole if they can’t figure out some of their issues.
The last two losses were been bad, ugly and really ugly at times as the young Detroit Pistons try to figure some things out and get healthy.
Detroit Pistons: The bad from back-to-back losses
Two-point percentage
Coming into the season, it was the Pistons’ 3-point shooting that had most people concerned, but in the last two losses it’s been the 2-point shots that have been the problem.
In the blowout loss to the Knicks, Detroit shot just 41 percent from 2-point range and in last night’s debacle, the Pistons hit a horrendous 35 percent from inside the arc.
To put that into perspective, Detroit was 29th in 2-point percentage last season overall, hitting 49.8 percent as a team, so to say 35 percent is bad is an understatement.
The Pacers did block 15 shots last night and that was without Myles Turner playing, but Detroit also just missed a ton of bunnies at the rim. The biggest culprit (as usual) was Isaiah Stewart, who simply must get better at catching the ball cleanly and finishing dump offs around the rim. Cade and Ivey have consistently gotten him the ball in places where most centers score and Stewart consistently fumbles the passes or just misses the point blank shots.
Stewart did have 11 points last night, but only shot 2-of-10 overall and hit 6-of-10 from the line. Saddiq Bey and Bojan Bogdanovic were similarly broke and the Detroit Pistons left at lot of points on the floor with missed shots at the rim.
Detroit actually hit 42 percent of their 3-point shots against Indiana, but it didn’t much matter, as they were either swatted or just flat-out missed just about everything else.
Detroit Pistons: The ugly from back-to-back losses
Points in the paint
This one piggy backs off the last problem, as you aren’t going to win many battles in the paint when the whole team shoots so poorly from inside of the arc.
But the Pistons have also given up a ton of points in the paint themselves, getting outscored 62-40 against the Knicks and 48-36 by the Pacers, two teams that don’t exactly have dominant big men.
While rookie Jalen Duren has provided some rim protection, the Pistons have only blocked four and three shots in the last two games, respectively, and just aren’t scaring anyone from going to the rim.
The guards haven’t been stopping dribble penetration and once players are in the paint, they are not finding much of a challenge, especially from the starting lineup, which has blocked exactly one shot in the last two games.
This is going to be an issue for Detroit, who is undersized (still) against a lot of teams, especially the starting five, which doesn’t really have a center in it. While Stewart holds his own defensively and is very versatile, he’s not intimidating anyone in the paint with his shot blocking.
But this isn’t just all on the bigs or lack of size, the guards are giving way too many free passes into the lane and as usual, Detroit is getting killed on the wing as they try to pigeon-hole either Saddiq Bey or Bojan Bogdanovic into guarding quicker forwards.
Hopefully this will start to get better as the Pistons get some of their guys back, but they can’t continue to have a 20 point disparity in the paint and expect to win.
Detroit Pistons: The really ugly from back-to-back losses
The bench
Woof.
Before we get into this, it should be noted that the Detroit Pistons have not had their full bench and it will look at lot better once Alec Burks and Marvin Bagley III are there to provide some scoring.
But right now, I am not sure the Pistons’ bench has an NBA player on it other than Jalen Duren and Isaiah Livers.
Killian Hayes, Hamidou Diallo and Kevin Knox have been just awful so far this season. In the case of Killian, he at least provides some value on defense, but he can’t score, and if he’s not surrounded by shooters, his playmaking is null and void, as teams just sag off and dare him to shoot.
Diallo and Knox don’t look like NBA rotation players, and the return of Livers wasn’t enough of a boost to matter last night.
The Detroit bench has been outscored 124-51 in the last two games and last night coach Dwane Casey was reluctant to even go to the bench, with every starter playing at least 30+ minutes in the second game of a back-to-back.
Coach Casey cannot continue to run all bench units out there, as there aren’t five guys on that bench right now who should actually play in an NBA game. I can’t really blame Casey, SOMEONE has to play, but he’ll have to stagger the starters and keep at least one of them on the floor at all times, as these bench minutes are killing the Pistons.
At least there is hope for this one, as MBIII and Burks should provide a boost of scoring and will also help Killian Hayes by giving him more options and space. Nerlens Noel should help if he ever gets off the bench. But until then, the bench minutes are going to be tough to watch and going to continue to cost Detroit games unless someone steps up.