Pistons news: Excuses, blame and putbacks are piling up

Excuses are mounting for the Detroit Pistons

Those of us who are trying to defend this team’s 2-6 start will point to three things that should give Pistons fans some hope:

The injuries

Detroit was missing seven players last night. You can talk all you want about turnovers and effort but even the best teams will struggle with half of their roster on the bench in street clothes. It’s not only the injuries but who they are to, as the Pistons are missing pretty much all of their best shooters and veterans. Every team has injuries and no one is going to feel sorry for the Pistons, but it’s hard to judge this team right now when we aren’t seeing it in its entirety.

The schedule

From the time this schedule was released, we said it was going to be a rough start and that’s before I knew how many guys would be out. The Pistons have already played three back-to-backs and now have games against the Bucks and 76ers. I picked the Pistons to win 34 games this season and they are currently one game off my predictions. I had them losing all of these games and coming out of November in a deep hole. The good news is that the schedule will lighten up some just as they are getting guys back, so don’t rule out a big run at some point.

The refs

Not going to entertain this one, as the Detroit Pistons have no one to blame but themselves for their copious fouling. They are currently leading the NBA in fouls and added another 20 last night. So many of these are stupid fouls that you can’t blame the refs with a straight face. The Pistons foul jump shooters consistently even though players rarely ever block those shots without fouling. They foul far from the hoop on stupid reach in plays. They foul in frustration after not getting a call. They foul here, there, everywhere, on a mouse on a house, ok, you get the point. Blaming the refs is desperate and I for one am sick of watching young players whining to the officials instead of getting back on defense.