Pistons news: Sweeps, unwritten rules and bigs not playing big

John Collins #20 of the Atlanta Hawks battles for a loose ball against Marvin Bagley III #35 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
John Collins #20 of the Atlanta Hawks battles for a loose ball against Marvin Bagley III #35 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

The Detroit Pistons dropped their 4th straight, this time to the Atlanta Hawks and old teammate Saddiq Bey.

The Hawks swept the season series with the Pistons and Detroit added to it’s league-worst loss total. In typical fashion, Detroit was shorthanded and got down early, two things that have been mainstays of their games of late.

As time was running out, rookie Jaden Ivey decided to take it to the rim for a meaningless hoop, breaking one of the precious unwritten rules, which angered the Hawks and caused a brief exchange of heated words after the buzzer sounded.

I may be in the minority here, but I hate unwritten rules in sports, whether it is celebrating too hard in baseball or scoring a meaningless bucket in the NBA. If you don’t want a guy to celebrate, don’t give up a bomb. If you don’t want a guy to score late in the game, don’t stop playing.

If I were the Hawks I would have just said “have it” and walked off the court laughing with my “W” instead of pretending like Ivey did something horrific. This isn’t the Old West or feudal-era Japan. Your honor wasn’t at stake, let’s move on.

Detroit Pistons news: Big men not playing big

The Detroit Pistons once again started two centers and Marvin Bagley III had his biggest game of the season, dropping 31 points and adding eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

I guess he didn’t take kindly to me saying his stock was dropping in my recent edition of Pistons’ stock market.

MBIII also hit 4-of-5 from 3-point range, which could be a promising sign, but could also be a troubling preview of things to come, as Bagley III is shooting 21 percent from 3-point range on the season and 28 percent from his career. Let’s hope he was just feeling it last night and doesn’t really think he should be shooting five three’s every game.

Another troubling aspect of the two-bigs experiment is that the Pistons were once-again out rebounded and completely dominated in the paint. The Hawks set a season high with 61 rebounds, while Detroit grabbed just 35.

Atlanta grabbed a whopping 21 offensive rebounds, showing a big problem Detroit has had all season, which is not closing out possessions by getting a defensive board.

The Hawks scored 50 points in the paint to the Pistons’ 38, obliterating them on the inside. Just about everyone got involved, as former Piston Saddiq Bey had 11 rebounds, more than anyone on Detroit, including their two centers.

The Pistons now have a -24 net rating when MBIII and Wiseman are on the floor together, which includes a 131.5 defensive rating and just a 50.5 percent rebounding percentage.