Detroit Pistons: Stewart and Bagley III respond to being called out

The Detroit Pistons held on for an exciting overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks last night, their sixth overall on the season.

They got to win six in December, a month ahead of last season, when the Pistons didn’t notch their sixth win until January 1st.

Last night ended up being all about Killian Hayes, as he had one of the best all-around games of his career and carried the Pistons in overtime.

Bogdanovic added 30 in the win and rookie Jaden Ivey made some big plays off the bench. The Detroit Pistons also out-rebounded the Mavs, which was a big turnaround from the last game.

Detroit got absolutely killed on the boards against the Knicks, which was baffling considering they started two “bigs” who should have at least been able to out-rebound Mitchell Robinson by himself, which they failed to do.

That led to coach Dwane Casey calling out his big men, and they responded last night.

Detroit Pistons: Coach Casey calls out Isaiah Stewart and Marvin Bagley III

After getting out-rebounded by 19 in the 30-point blowout loss to the Knicks, Coach Casey called out his big men and demanded that they do more on the boards:

"“I told them there was no reason to keep starting two bigs if they weren’t going to dominate the glass — I could put Corey Joseph in the lineup,” Casey said. “Tonight they came through and did a really, really great job on the boards.”"

I don’t know if it was the threat of losing their starting jobs or the threat of more minutes for Cory Joseph, but it worked, as the Pistons won the battle of the boards 52-30 last night behind 25 combined rebounds from their two bigs.

Marvin Bagley III grabbed 13, four on the offensive end, and Beef Stew added 12 of his own, as they held the Mavericks’ bigs to just 12 rebounds combined.

Dallas is one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, so we need to see these two do it against bigger and better rebounders, but it is a good sign that they responded after getting embarrassed against New York.

The “two bigs” experiment is still a work in progress for the Detroit Pistons, but they showed last night that it can be an advantage.