If you’ve ever been punched in the gut unexpectedly, then you know what last night’s Detroit Pistons’ game felt like.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it, that one hurt, and it was made more painful by the fact that both Josh Hart and the referees admitted that Tim Hardaway Jr. was fouled on the final play, which should have led to three free throws.
But the Pistons were garbage in the first half, including coach JB Bickerstaff, who inexplicably used his only challenge on a meaningless play when the score was 10-8 in the first quarter. Yeah, it would have been nice to have that one back.
The Pistons were undone by incredible shot making by the Knicks, particularly Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, who took turns knocking down difficult shots.
Cade Cunningham answered with a triple double of his own, but beyond him, Tobias Harris had 18 points, and Malik Beasley and THJ combined for 27 points, but shot just 10-of-28 from the floor.
This clearly illustrates the problem with the Detroit Pistons right now, but luckily, it’s one that may already have an internal roster solution.
The Detroit Pistons need another consistent scoring threat with Cade Cunningham
Look, we’ve been saying this all season, but it’s become clearer in the playoffs: Cade Cunningham needs help.
Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tobias Harris have been amazing this season and are some of the primary reasons the Pistons are where they are. They’ve all had their moments in this series, but that’s the problem, they’ve only been moments.
The Pistons don’t have a guy other than Cade who is going to consistently get you 20+ points per night. One of these guys might do it on a random night, but you can’t count on them from game to game.
They are role players and very good ones, which is fine, as every good team needs quality role players who are good at their jobs. But you also need guys who can get their own shots and score consistently, and right now, the Pistons don’t have that guy.
It’s possible he’s sitting on the bench, as Jaden Ivey showed flashes before getting hurt. It’s possible that one of Ausar Thompson or Ron Holland II evolves into that guy, but right now they are fairly one-dimensional.
Too many players on the current roster are one-dimensional, as they have players who are great defenders but can’t do much offensively, and guys who are great shooters who aren’t great defenders. That is all fine as long as you have a couple of guys at the top who can do the consistent scoring so that you aren’t relying explusively on role players after your top guy.
That’s what the Knicks have with Brunson and KAT and what Cade currently lacks. New York had two players hitting incredibly difficult shots under pressure and the Pistons had just one.
To their credit, the Pistons’ role players have been great this season and have stepped up above their station when called upon, but for this team to take the next step, they need another consistent scoring threat.
It will be on Trajan Langdon to decide if he needs to go looking for that guy or if he’s already on the team. The good news is that the Pistons have a playoff-level defense, but their offense isn’t there yet.