The most obvious way for Jalen Duren to get back into the series

Jalen Duren has yet to assert himself in the first three games of the playoffs, and the easiest way for him to get back into this series is to dominate the boards. 

There is no sugarcoating it; Jalen Duren has been bad in this series, going from a 20/10 double-double machine to a guy who can barely get a shot off. 

To their credit, the Magic have game planned well for Duren and are making his life difficult on offense. We’re used to seeing Duren get a few easy dunks every game and that’s just not happening against Orlando. 

They have effectively stifled his rolls to the hoops, and Duren hasn’t been able to get anything going in his face-up game. 

We can also talk about some of the lapses on defense, where Duren has been a step slow for most of the series, hasn’t challenged shots on the perimeter and has allowed plenty of backdoor cuts. 

But the most disappointing part is that Duren is getting beaten on the boards, which should be his area of focus in game four, as it will get the rest of his game going. 

Jalen Duren can’t get beaten at what he does best 

Coming into the season, we only had a couple of certainties when it came to Duren, that he was a good rebounder and lob catcher. His defense was still suspect, and we didn’t know if he had much more to offer on offense. 

Duren proved his critics wrong for most of the season, and Detroit came to rely on his offense, and its disappearance is one of the reasons the Pistons are in a 1-2 hole. 

Given his struggles offensively, Duren needs to get back to what we know he can do, which is rebound the basketball. This is a guy who averaged 10.5 per game for the season but has yet to crack double digits in rebounds in the series. 

The Pistons are not accustomed to losing the rebounding battle, but Orlando’s rebounding edge is a big reason they are up in the series, as they dominated the boards in both their wins, racking up 25 combined offensive rebounds in the process. 

Both Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. outrebounded Duren last night and guard Desmond Bane wasn’t far behind. 

The Pistons are getting Orlando to miss, but aren’t finishing the possessions, allowing the Magic to get extra shots, and this mostly falls on Duren. He has to keep these guys off the offensive boards and limit their attempts. 

Rebounding will get the offense going 

I would challenge Duren to assert himself on the glass first and let the offense take care of itself, as grabbing a few offensive rebounds will lead to easy putbacks, dunks and fouls. 

The Pistons haven’t been able to get Duren going in the half court, so he has to take it into his own hands to get every rebound and make that his focus. 

Duren can’t continue to let his offensive struggles affect other parts of his game, and if he gets back to doing what he does well, he can work his way back in this series on the glass. 

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