The Detroit Pistons were due for a dud game after winning eight straight, and it happened last night against the Denver Nuggets.
It wasn’t that the Pistons played that terribly, but couldn’t find an offensive rhythm against Denver, especially in the half court, and couldn’t get consistent stops, as the Nuggets hit 57 percent of their 3-point attempts.
You have to give the Nuggets credit, as they did a great job keeping Cade Cunningham out of the game, as the Pistons’ leader only had one point in the first half on his way to his worst game of the season.
Part of that was that the Pistons couldn’t keep him on the floor, as Cunningham got into early foul trouble and had to be taken out of the game.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Jalen Duren picked up two early ones and had to sit, and then it was Isaiah Stewart’s turn, as he racked up five fouls and a technical before the night was over.
During this surge, the Pistons have played effectively aggressive, but last night, a lot of things they’ve been getting away with were called fouls. The Pistons were also just a step slow, so a lot of calls were fouls.
After starting the game very physically against Denver and generating some early turnovers, the whistle started to change and you can blame or give credit to Mike Malone for that.
The Detroit Pistons' physicality was limited by the refs
Mike Malone didn’t wait long to let the refs know that he wasn’t happy with the Pistons’ physicality.
He picked up a technical right away (after a Duren/Jokic wrestling match that didn’t draw a whistle) and absolutely let the refs have it. He didn’t stop yelling at them for a few minutes and was likely on the verge of being tossed, but he walked that fine line and let the refs know exactly how he felt about the Pistons’ physical play.
And it worked.
Suddenly, the Pistons were getting whistled for every 50/50 play, which took some of their key players out of the game and stopped them from ever getting into a flow.
JB Bickerstaff recognized this after the game and gave Malone credit:
JB: "I’m going to give Mike Malone credit. When we were playing physical early, he went out and got a tech and we weren’t allowed to play physical anymore."
— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) March 1, 2025
I’ve been waiting for an opposing coach to do this, as the Pistons love to play physical, get steals, run and wear teams down and Malone wasn’t going to allow that to happen. He was either going to get the refs to start calling fouls, or get kicked out of the game, one or the other.
It was a savvy move by a veteran coach who had done his homework and knew that limiting the Pistons’ physical play was key for his team.
It led to 31 free throws for the Nuggets, and more importantly, got key Pistons out of the game and out of the flow early.
To their credit, Detroit was still able to create turnovers and run but they weren’t able to overcome the free-throw and 3-point disparity.
Luckily, not all coaches have Mike Malone’s built-up credit with the refs, so the Pistons just have to keep doing their thing and be more effectively aggressive when the whistles aren’t going their way.