10 good things and one bad in Pistons win over Warriors
The Detroit Pistons forgetting the bench
The starters all played at least 31 minutes last night and there was only one minute total in the game when there wasn’t at least one starter on the floor.
Outside of Jalen Duren and Isaiah Livers, the bench has been abysmal this season, so why play them at all? This team is young enough to play big minutes, so Dwane Casey doesn’t need to roll with a full 10-man rotation when he doesn’t have 10 good players.
Until Marvin Bagley III and Alec Burks get back, the Pistons really go 7-deep, so it was nice to see Cory Joseph and Hamidou Diallo only play a combined 17 minutes last night, as the “all bench” units have been killing the Pistons.
The less we see of Joseph, Diallo and Hayes right now the better, though the latter should be more effective once the bench is back to full strength. But until then, we need to see a starter in there at all times.
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I actually cheered when I saw Cade starting the 4th quarter, as Detroit needed him in there to not allow a run by Golden State. Coach Casey has a bad habit of stubbornly sticking with the rotation even when it is not working, so it was nice to see him adjust.
Letting the young guys play through foul trouble
Detroit has a bad habit of getting into foul trouble early, especially Cade Cunningham, which has ruined the rhythm of several games already.
It happened again last night, as Cade picked up two early fouls and had to sit, but fortunately, coach Casey didn’t leave him out for long. If you are going to bench your players for long stretches when they get into foul trouble to “save” them, you have effectively fouled them out of the game yourself.
Casey has to trust Cade in those situations and hope he is smart enough to make the right play, which he did last night, ending the game with just four fouls in 39 minutes.