The Pistons were gifted a perfect opportunity to pick up an easy victory over the league-leading Thunder and nearly blew it. Oklahoma City entered the game missing most of their starting lineup to injury, including reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But it was still a close game in the fourth quarter, with the Pistons eventually scoring a 124-116 victory.
Because of all the injuries, the highly-anticipated showdown between the top seeds in each conference did not pan out as expected. The game didn't tell us as much about the Pistons as we hoped, but there were still some important concerns that stood out:
1. The Pistons were uncharacteristically lazy on defense.
After the Pistons' most recent loss to the Spurs, you would expect them to come out fired up to prove themselves against another top West team. Instead, Detroit was slow closing out on the Thunder's shooters and gave up 18 made threes on 49 attempts. Even without a true star to break down the defense, OKC found good looks from outside because the Pistons didn't have their usual hustle defensively.
Hopefully this game was just an anamoly that caught the Pistons off guard because of the Thunder's injuries and playstyle. It's harder to gameplan for a team when so many of the guys on the usual scouting report are out. And it does seem the Pistons might have taken their foot off the gas expecting an easy win against a depleted squad. Although it worked out this time, they will need to nip that bad habit before it bites them in the playoffs.
2. The Pistons struggled to guard Jaylin Williams.
The Thunder were led in scoring by Jaylin Williams (note: this is not the Jalen Williams who had a 40-point game in the Finals last year and was an All-Star) with 30. Williams buried 5 threes in the game and had the Pistons looking clueless on pick-and-pops. In particular, Jalen Duren often gave him too much space to shoot.
Duren's inability to guard shooting bigs was a major playoff concern last year against the Knicks. It led to some big performances from Karl-Anthony Towns. Ideally, an available Isaiah Stewart will address this problem, but Duren needs to improve in these situations himself as well.
3. Cade Cunningham needs to be more careful with the ball.
Criticisms of the Pistons offense are usually not directed at Cade Cunningham, but the Thunder exposed one of his biggest weaknesses: excessive turnovers. Cade coughed up the ball 8 total times, many coming on careless mistakes. These giveaways cost the Pistons valuable scoring opportunities against an elite defense and almost led to a loss.
The Thunder are known for forcing turnovers, but Cade didn't help matters with his carelessness. He needs to address this weakness before the playoffs; it could make all the difference in a close series.