The Detroit Pistons barely showed up last night against the Philadelphia 76ers, losing 113-93 in one of their worst performances of the season.
We know all of the excuses at this point: Cade Cunningham is injured. The Pistons are young. They are rebuilding. They were on the second game of a back-to-back.
While all of these things are true, it’s still discouraging to see a team fail to score 100 points and get soundly washed by a Philly team that barely looked interested themselves.
The Pistons have had plenty of close losses this season, but they’ve also had plenty of these nights when the team may as well not have left the locker room.
Consider some of these stats from last night’s loss:
- The Pistons shot 39.2% as a team. Philly shot just 44.1%, so this is a game where even league-average shooting might have been enough.
- Detroit was 26.1% from 3-point range. The entire starting five made one 3-point shot and Bojan Bogdanovic didn’t even attempt one.
- Nine missed free throws. Detroit had 12 more attempts but when you miss nine of them it doesn’t much matter.
- 15 assists for the Pistons, 27 for the 76ers.
- Detroit had one blocked shot. Philly had seven
- Philadelphia turned the ball over 12 times. Detroit turned it over 22 times.
- The younger, faster Pistons had nine fast break points. The 76ers had 20
- Detroit had 32 points in the paint to 56 for Philly
It’s games like this that make you wonder if Dwane Casey’s tenure is near its end. Fans don’t expect the team to win every night, but at least hope for competitive games and some amount of progress. That isn’t happening and some fans have tapped out.
Detroit Pistons: Fans losing patience
Detroit Pistons beat writer Omari Sankofa II made an interesting observation last night that I noticed myself, which is that the fans couldn’t seem to be bothered to watch or care about this game:
This might be the quietest night I've seen from Pistons Twitter this season. I get it, tough game in the midst of another tough season
— Offseason O (@omarisankofa) December 22, 2022
Even some of the super fans have tapped out, and I think this comment pretty much summarizes how some of the fans are feeling about this team right now:
It’s tough, man. Even the most loyal fans, myself included, are having a tough time watching this season.
— Tony Dombrowski (@tonydombrowski) December 22, 2022
There are lots of reasons for this aside from just the Pistons being lousy. It’s the holiday season and people have other, more enjoyable things to do than to watch this team get their butts kicked.
The Lions are playing well and focus is more on them with a possible playoff berth looming.
Cade Cunningham, the franchise cornerstone, is out for the season, which pretty much delivered the death blow to any chance they had to really compete. And with him out, it’s hard to evaluate the other players or know how this roster fits together.
But in the end, fans want to see some amount of progress. They want to see young players leaving it all on the floor and competing even when they lose. They want to see SOME DEFENSE, as this particular iteration of the Pistons might be the worst defense they’ve ever had, embarrassing for a franchise that is known for it.
There just hasn’t been much to get excited about outside of Jalen Duren and flashes from Jaden Ivey, so it’s not surprising that fans are turning elsewhere for entertainment with the NBA Draft (the carrot in front of the donkey) still many months away.
So it you are having a tough time watching the Detroit Pistons this holiday season, just know you are not alone, but that better days are hopefully coming soon.