A Pistons' strength being undone by a weakness

When you are dead last in the NBA and riding a franchise-high losing streak, it's safe to say that not much has gone right, which is the case with the Detroit Pistons.

They are once again near the bottom of the league in both defensive and offensive efficiency, so don't have much to hang their hats on at this point in the season. Getting Bojan Bogdanovic back should help the offense somewhat, especially in the half-court, but he's hardly going to help their defense.

The Pistons have been very good in one area, and that's the fastbreak. They are 10th in the NBA in fastbreak points per game and 2nd overall in fastbreak efficiency.

When the Pistons do get out and run, they tend to finish the play, so obviously they need more of it, but this is where some of their other deficiencies kick in.

The Detroit Pistons and the fastbreak

The Pistons stink in the half-court, so it would help them immensely if they could get out and run more. They have athletes who can get up and down the floor in Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson to go along with a guy who can get them the ball.

The Pistons' guards and Thompson all grab rebounds, so this is a team that should be able to run more.

The problem is that to get fastbreaks you have to earn them with stops and that's where the Pistons are failing. Detroit is just 23rd in defensive efficiency overall and is allowing opponents to shoot over 47 percent from the field, so they are taking the ball out of the net a lot of times, which makes it hard to run.

Even though they often play big, the Pistons are just 16th in defensive rebounds per game, though they are 12th in defensive rebounding percentage. Defensive rebounds are the final step to closing out a possession, so they need to get those numbers up as well.

The Pistons should be a fun team that gets up and down the floor, but they are being held back by a defense that is allowing too many made shots and not rebounding enough of the misses.