Category → Game Review
Rodney Stuckey injury mars pathetic Pistons performance
The Pistons were embarrassingly bad in their 119-89 loss to the Magic tonight – but, hey, that occasionally happens to bad teams .
Sometimes, you have to relax, laugh at how inept the Pistons look and dream about lottery odds.
But the stinker became no joking matter when Rodney Stuckey bumped knees with Jason Richardson just before halftime. Stuckey received enough attention while sprawled on the court as the intermission began that the injury looked fairly serous. He didn’t return in the second half, and it would be a shame if yet another injury derailed the home stretch of what has been Stuckey’s finest season.
I can take some solace that a Stuckey injury would help the Pistons’ lottery odds, but I’d rather he didn’t experience what looked to be serious pain for my selfish desires as a fan.
Speaking of, I don’t think I’ve asked much of the Pistons this year, but man, they didn’t even come close tonight.
Tayshaun Prince made his first five shots. Otherwise, his teammates didn’t appear to realize they were playing in an NBA game tonight. They looked dazed as Ish Smith got wherever he wanted off the dribble while setting up his teammates for wide open 3-pointers – especially Richardson, who made 6-of-7 from beyond the arc – and Glen Davis had his way inside. The Pistons’ offense was nearly as disastrous, with turnovers and bad shots dominating the night.
But this was just one game, and unlike early in the season, Detroit has mostly avoided blowout losses to non-elite teams. With Dwight Howard out, the Magic certainly aren’t an elite team. Plus, the Pistons were playing their fourth games in four cities in five nights.
This ridiculous lack of effort is never acceptable, but it was relatively understandable tonight.
Being outsmarted, though, is also never acceptable, and there were no excuses tonight for that.
Stan Van Gundy is a better coach than Lawrence Frank, and this game illustrated a key reason: Van Gundy’s players understand what’s a good shot much better than Frank’s do.
The numbers in a game like this can be a bit misleading, but thankfully, there’s a clear cutoff:
At that point, both teams were shooting a similar percentage on shots longer than 18 feet:
- Pistons: .500 (7-of-14)
- Magic: .522 (12-of-23)
But one team was scoring much more efficiently on those shots:
- Pistons: 1.21 points per shot (17 points)
- Magic: 1.57 points per shot (36 points)
That’s because a much larger percentage of Orlando’s long jumpers were 3-pointers compared to Detroit’s. From that distance, the expected value of a 3-point attempt is considerably higher than a 2-point attempt.
The Pistons repeatedly passed up decent looks at 3-pointers only to settle for similar looks at long 2-pointers. That’s bad basketball, and unless they fix it, that will lead to more bad losses.
Before Frank gets on his players for their effort tonight, he should look at that systematic flaw in his offense.
Awful skid
With a 98-75 loss to the Heat on Sunday, Detroit has lost its last two games by a combined 53 points. That’s the Pistons’ worst two-game stretch since they lost to the Trail Blazers by 31 points and the Lakers by 24 points – a combined 55 points – during the 2000-01 season.
The Pistons have also lost three in a row. Their 30-point loss tonight was their worst loss of the season and matched a 30-point loss to the Nuggets on March 12, 2011.
Brandon Knight shines, Greg Monroe labors against Heat
Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight, for all the grouping of them together as the Pistons’ future, are at very different stages of their development.
That was especially evident Sunday’s 98-75 loss to the Heat.
Monroe (11 points and seven rebounds) and Knight (16 points and five rebounds) were two of the Pistons’ only three players to make most of their shots, and by the box score, those two were similarly effective.
But Monroe’s numbers were much harder to come by.
Miami clearly gameplanned for Monroe, who has established himself as a a very good interior scorer. Ronny Turiaf’s crafty defense and quick hands gave Monroe trouble, and the Heat even used LeBron James against Monroe a bit. The second-year Piston labored while involved early, was kept at bay by Miami for most of the game and added a few meaningless points late.
That left Knight, a Miami native, to have a solid homecoming. He made 2-of-4 3-pointers and got to the rim as effectively as could be imagined against the Heat’s tight defense.
Knight had only one assist, but the Heat allowed just eight total assists. Passing the ball effectively, let alone making shots, against their defense was problematic.
The Pistons shot 37.3 percent from the field and largely resorted to long jumpers, including going 3-of-19 on 3-pointers. LeBron (26 points) and Chris (Bosh 22 points and nine rebounds) will get credit for their offensive, but they led a Miami defense that was excellent.
Knight didn’t play in the fourth quarter, by then, the game’s result was long decided. Knight’s defense didn’t look worthy of warranting a benching, but maybe I missed missed something. Or, perhaps, Lawrence Frank wanted to rest his point guard.
Either way, Knight was the lone bright spot for the Pistons in a particularly flat game, which was especially nice to see considering the game’s location.
Brandon Knight takes his turn to sit in crunch time due to lazy defense
Last night, Greg Monroe played sloppy defense. A hard-working veteran behind him on the depth chart just so happened to have another near-vintage game in him, so Monroe sat as penance for a feeble effort in favor of Ben Wallace, playing just 20 minutes despite shooting the ball well.
Tonight, swap Monroe for Brandon Knight and Wallace for Will Bynum and you had the exact same scenario in Detroit’s road loss to Atlanta.
Knight played matador defense against Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, who got in the lane at will, finishing with 24 points, 11 assists and just two turnovers. Teague is certainly a tough cover due to his quickness. Knight has exhibited a lot of speed when he’s moving up and down the court all season, but he occasionally looks a bit slower when he has to move his feet side to side. Tonight was one of those ‘slow’ nights. A few of Teague’s layups were simply blow-bys, where Knight couldn’t even manage to get some contact on Teague before he was already on his way to the rim. By the midway point of the third quarter, shortly after another Teague layup, Lawrence Frank pulled Knight.
In both last night’s game with Monroe and tonight’s game with Knight, I’m not sure whether Frank subbed them out of those respective games intending to never put them back on the floor. In both cases, he had the option of veterans playing extremely well. Tonight, it was Bynum. He finished with 15 points, four rebounds, an assist and two steals. He was far from a defensive stopper, but he at least put more pressure on the ball against Teague than Knight was able to. He also came away with one of his trademark, jaw-dropping plays, hustling back on defense, going straight up and blocking a close-range shot attempt by Hawks Center Zaza Pachulia, who is at least a foot taller than Bynum.
When I was watching and writing about Wallace’s performance last night, the thought that we really only have a couple weeks left to appreciate what Wallace has meant to this franchise was never far from my mind. Bynum certainly has nowhere near the level of accomplishments Wallace has, but I’m having similar reflective feelings about him. The other day, Ben Gulker of Detroit Bad Boys wrote this:
I want Will Bynum to be MFWB again (that’s Marvelously Fantastic Will Bynum for the uninitiated).
Really, sincerely, I do. But he ain’t. Or at least, he hasn’t been. Yes, there have been some flashes and some nasty highlights. But overall, I can’t shake the feeling his time in Detroit is coming to an end.
Now, from a logical standpoint, I understand this. Bynum has always wanted a bigger role than he was able to play in Detroit. When he’s had consistent minutes, he’s been productive. With Knight and Rodney Stuckey essentially sharing most of the minutes at point guard between them, Bynum will never get the role he covets here. Plus, the skillset he brings to the table is too similar to how Knight and Stuckey already play. The Pistons could really use a backup guard who is a traditional distributor and who can be a spot-up shooter. Both parties would probably be best served by amicably parting ways. I get it.
It’s still a little sad, though, because I’ve become pretty attached to Bynum over the years. We all know the last four seasons of Pistons basketball have been difficult to watch. For me, (other than Monroe, of course) the biggest bright spot and most watchable player of that overall forgettable span has been Bynum. It has been pretty simple why. We’ve seen over those four years quite the collection of selfishness, incompetence and hideously ugly basketball by just about anyone who has anything to do with the on-court product (players, coaches, execs, everyone). Bynum, on the other hand, has not only provided more than his share of dynamic plays, he was always a guy whose passion, whose effort you couldn’t really question. He was always the guy at the short end of the stick when divvying out guard minutes and it was never for legitimate reasons. He out-worked any guard the Pistons had on the roster in front of him, whether it was established stars like Allen Iverson or Rip Hamilton, whether it was a prodigy young player like Stuckey or whether it was a pricey free agent like Ben Gordon. He played the least because the Pistons had the least invested in him. It wasn’t fair to him, but he was as professional as it got. He clearly wanted to play more, he clearly didn’t like sitting on the bench, but he never joined in the public grousing that other players who were unhappy (and less justifiably unhappy, I might add, compared to Bynum’s situation) with their roles partook in.
I don’t know whether Bynum will be a Piston next season again or not, but I was happy to see him get at least one more trademark Bynum performance. It was fitting that it came mostly with Stuckey on the court, too. I remember during the craziness of Iverson’s Pistons season, a few times because of the alternating injuries/pouting of Iverson and Hamilton, Michael Curry was forced to roll with a Bynum-Stuckey backcourt. I remember them being a lot of fun to watch, too. They seemed to have good chemistry with each other and both guys loved to push the ball and attack the basket. Both clearly put a lot of pressure on a defense. But in the John Kuester era, we didn’t see that lineup much simply because the Pistons had too much money invested in shooting guards to get Stuckey many minutes at the SG spot while Bynum played the point. They had a big impact on tonight’s game. When they were on the court together, the Pistons were +17 on Atlanta.
Like last night with Monroe and Wallace, Knight getting benched in favor of Bynum isn’t something I’m hoping becomes the norm as the season winds down, but I’m OK with it as a one-time thing. Knight played poorly on defense and a veteran behind him stepped in and played with the aggression and energy the Pistons want to see in Knight at all times. Hopefully, it just serves as a not so subtle reminder to Knight that minutes aren’t a given. And hopefully, it served as a nice audition for Bynum that helps interest a team in need of a change of pace guard it can give consistent minutes to next season.
Oh, and Stuckey is really good
I owe Stuckey a few thousand words about the immense leap forward he’s taken as a player and a leader this season. Trust me, that will be coming up. But for tonight, he scored 27 points off the bench, once again made putting Gordon on the court unnecessary (we all owe him a thank you for that) and he, Bynum, Damien Wilkins, Wallace and Jonas Jerebko formed a much more active, competitive and entertaining bunch to watch than a first unit that might have been run off the floor tonight if the Pistons didn’t have that lively bench crew stepping in. Oh, and speaking of starters, I know that +/- is not a tell-all stat, but Tayshaun Prince was a -30 tonight. Wow.
Monroe doesn’t respond
You know that part above where I mentioned that I hope Knight takes the hint of getting benched for lousy defense and plays better next time around? Basically, I could’ve just wrote, “Don’t respond how Monroe did tonight.” I didn’t expect Monroe to dominate offensively. The Hawks have a great defensively player/shot blocker in their frontcourt in Josh Smith and Monroe tends to have trouble getting his shots off against players like that. But as was noted a few times by commenters, he had another poor defensive game. He occasionally doesn’t move his feet well defensively facing up against bigs like Smith, he occasionally doesn’t react quickly enough to help on dribble penetration and he occasionally gets bullied into giving up position under the basket to bruising big men. Tonight, all those things happened in the same game. Knight was certainly guilty of not giving enough resistance to Teague, but Monroe was also late getting over to contest on some of Teague’s drives. Smith scored 22 points on 10-for-20 shooting against basically anyone the Pistons through at him and Ivan Johnson came off the bench to smash his way to the basket and shoot 8-for-12. Plenty of defensive blame to go around in this one, it’s not all on Monroe and Knight, but as potential cornerstone players the team is depending on down the road, both guys need to make significant strides on defense in the offseason. This was a bad one to watch.
Ben Wallace puts on a free throw shooting clinic (kind of) in Detroit’s win over Washington
With 6:10 remaining in the third quarter of Thursday’s 99-94 win over the Wizards, Ben Wallace subbed in for Greg Monroe and Monroe never returned.
Here are the defensive sequences that preceded that move: Kevin Seraphin missed a dunk; Kevin Seraphin made a dunk; John Wall drove in for a lightly contested layup; Seraphin made a short sweeping hook shot. On offense, Monroe threw a bad pass resulting in a turnover and committed a loose ball foul. All of that occurred in roughly two minutes, and Monroe was clearly a step slow on D in that stretch.
It wasn’t surprising that Lawrence Frank pulled Monroe there. It was pretty surprising that he never put him back in. On the one hand, I’ve been OK with Frank occasionally benching Monroe and Brandon Knight at times this season when their defense, effort or focus wanes some, and Monroe’s clearly did there. On the other hand, Monroe had 18 points (7-for-10 shooting) and 7 rebounds at that point and was basically unguardable. He had a bad stretch, but getting benched for the rest of the game seems like a heavy price to pay for a sloppy stretch.
On another hand (do I still have hands left to use?), BEN WALLACE!
Wallace not only unsurprisingly brought the requisite defensive intensity Frank was hoping his young center would display more of, he provided the above screen grab after Wizards coach Randy Wittman employed the hack-a-Ben strategy late in the game. Wallace knocked down his first four free throws after the Wizards started intentionally following him and ended up hitting 5-for-10 overall (hey, 50 percent is not bad considering he was below 30 percent on the season coming in). Wallace finished with eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. AP reporter Dave Hogg summed up the performance pretty nicely on Twitter:
Someone should show Dwight Howard the video of Ben Wallace busting his ass for the last 18 minutes of that game.
It is hard to argue against big minutes for young players as the Pistons finish the season. Letting them play through mistakes can often be a good learning tool. But the Pistons are also in a unique position in that they have veterans like Wallace who are tough, smart and professional. Wallace isn’t playing to try and take Monroe’s minutes, he’s playing trying to set an example for the rest of the team to follow. There’s occasionally value in sitting a player like Monroe when his effort wanes some in favor of a player like Wallace whose effort NEVER wanes. Seriously, he’s amazing.
And you can’t even make the argument that sitting Monroe gave the Pistons a better chance to win. Monroe is clearly their best player. Benching him actually gave Washington a better chance at stealing the game. So the Pistons were able to play a veteran playing as hard as he possibly could, let their entire team watch how Wallace went about things tonight and (if Washington could’ve cooperated by not air-balling layup attempts) worsen their chances for a win in the never-ending pursuit of lottery balls. And people say the Pistons don’t know how to tank correctly.
John Wall John Walls Brandon Knight
Brandon Knight no-showed on offense and defense tonight. He had a tough matchup with fellow Kentucky product John Wall, but he’s battled in tough matchups at other times in the season. Knight couldn’t stay in front of Wall when they were matched up on defense. No real shame in that, Wall is a tough cover. But Knight compounded it by shooting poorly on offense and failing to make plays for others too. Knight had one assist and four turnovers (compare to Wallace, who had 3 assists and 1 turnover) and formed a sloppy starting backcourt with Ben Gordon, who contributed four turnovers of his own. Gordon made up for it a bit by hitting six of his 13 shots.
Rodney Stuckey is back (briefly)
Rodney Stuckey returned from injury to put up nice numbers — he had 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting with three assists in 18 minutes. He took care of the ball better than the starting guards and played better defense. Unfortunately, he also did his Jonas Jerebko impersonation, getting a bit too aggressive and fouling out in just 18 minutes. He didn’t appear to have any lingering affects from his injury though, which was good.
Pistons withstand Glen Davis onslaught, beat short-handed Magic
It’s safe to say Glen Davis and Daniel Orton didn’t provide the kind of resistance inside Orlando was hoping for, playing without its starting frontcourt of Dwight Howard and Ryan Anderson (and starting point guard Jameer Nelson). Detroit out-scored Orlando 56-30 in the paint and essentially got any shot they wanted on offense.
Detroit was mostly patient with the exception of a few possessions. They moved the ball well, took good shots and Orlando’s defense predictably collapsed minus Howard (and don’t discount Anderson’s absence on D either … he’s become a solid defensive player as well) in the middle. All five starters scored in double figures. No starter shot more than 13 times or fewer than 11.
With Howard out, my hope before the game was Greg Monroe would dominate. He played great, but dominating wasn’t all that necessary since all of his teammates were getting open shots as well. Monroe, as he always does, terrorized the offensive glass (he had four), and with Howard out, Monroe wasn’t as tentative around the basket as he sometimes gets playing against great shot blockers. He went up confidently and strong without the fear of his shot getting blocked, and his teammates followed suit.
Jason Maxiell got a dunk on the first possession of the game, then another monster slam on an offensive rebound midway through the first. Jonas Jerebko closed the quarter by dunking a lob on an in-bounds play. Tayshaun Prince slashed to the basket for a dunk in traffic on a pass from Will Bynum in the second.
I’ve harped on the ‘Monroe needs more shots!’ talking point all season, and tonight, when he shot 9-for-11 for 22 points against a really weak frontcourt, it would certainly seem like a good time to reinforce that point considering three other Pistons shot it more than he did. But I can’t even get upset about it. The Pistons got any shot they wanted and had every player aggressively attacking the basket and finishing. It was fun to watch, even if Monroe was probably capable of scoring 40 or more tonight.
Ben Wallace is great, part a million
The end of Ben Wallace‘s career is getting closer, and I’m admittedly not ready to come to grips with that. But he reached another milestone tonight, going over 7,000 defensive rebounds for his career. At some point, I’m going to write a lot of words about Wallace in a post (you’ve been warned). For tonight, I’ll just let Chris Webber handle it. When asked if Wallace was a Hall of Famer on Twitter, this was Webber’s response:
yes
Concise and accurate. That’s why C-Webb is my favorite analyst.
Ben Gordon’s groin is great, thanks
Ryan Field of FSD got the halftime scoop, telling Ben Gordon that his groin appeared to be feeling good. It was a little awkward, but still true. Gordon looked healthy tonight. He’s struggled with injuries with the Pistons and more than once, come back when it appeared he wasn’t fully healed from whatever particular injury was afflicting him at the time. Tonight, he moved well, looked comfortable in the offense and, most importantly, made open shots. His 45-point game this season was certainly exciting, but I’m actually more encouraged when Gordon can play like he did tonight. With Monroe, Rodney Stuckey and eventually maybe Brandon Knight, if Gordon sticks around beyond this season, he’s never going to be more than a third or fourth option at best. Since he’s become a Piston, the only times he’s looked comfortable and productive have been when the Pistons have been giving him a lot of shots and treating him as a No. 1 option. Gordon isn’t good enough to be a top option on a good team every game and, to this point, he hasn’t shown that he can be an effective, consistent complimentary player. Tonight, he was. He didn’t force things, he made open shots and he didn’t disappear when the ball wasn’t in his hands like he sometimes does. This is the performance I would much rather see Gordon build on than the night he caught lightning in a bottle and hit everything.
Jerebko out-plays Magic bench
Orlando’s starters, notably Davis (31 points) and Hedo Turkoglu (16 points on 6-for-7 shooting), competed well enough for the Magic to stay close, even if Detroit’s starters were playing well too. The difference was Jerebko’s effort off the bench. He scored 13 points, had five rebounds and a steal. Orlando’s reserves combined only had 16 points and shot the ball poorly. Jerebko’s dunk at the end of the first quarter gave the Pistons a boost of energy early and he had a great fourth quarter to help the Pistons pull away. He untied the game with a three in the first minute of the fourth, then midway through the quarter he hit a layup and then got a steal that led to a Knight layup to help the Pistons push the lead to double figures.
Final Four trumps Pistons’ overtime win over Bobcats, which included minor Greg Monroe-Brandon Knight flap
Stuckey, going into that last timeout, asked me who won the Kentucky game.
#theydratherwatchthatgametoo
Kentucky 69, Louisville 61 in the main event. Pistons 110, Bobcats 107 in the undercard.
By hosting the Bobcats and not leading after regulation, the Pistons join a prestigious group that previously included just the pre-Linsanity Knicks, Raptors and Hornets.
On one hand – with Rodney Stuckey and Ben Gordon out injured – that’s somewhat understandable. On the other hand, even without those two, the Pistons probably should put away a team like Charlotte sooner.
In fact, it was the Bobcats up late. But Brandon Knight made a couple 3-pointers, and Greg Monroe made a three-point play as part of a late flurry to send the game to overtime.
During Detroit’s run, though, D.J. Augustin drove for a layup. Mayo:
BK and Greg Monroe argue about that defensive lapse, no help on the Augustin drive. Jawed at each other a bit. 95-91
#Bobcats, 1:15 left.
In itself, that’s no big deal. Teammates, caught up in competition, clash all the time.
But on losing teams, those types of problems can fester, intensify and become significant. Obviously, the Pistons don’t need a rift between their two most promising players.
But by the time Will Bynum made a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime and the Bobcats missed two 3-pointers on their final possession, I bet Monroe and Knight had forgotten about the exchange.
Certainly, Stuckey wasn’t the only one with an eye on the Final Four tonight. Even Pistons fans who don’t like college basketball are intrigued by Detroit’s potential first-round draft picks playing for Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio State.
With tonight’s win, Detroit hurt its odds of having its choice between those Final Four stars. But the Pistons also avoided another potential problem, which has real value.
And, of course, they didn’t lose to the Bobcats
Pistons compete on defense, labor on offense in loss to Chicago
Coming up with a good defensive effort against the Bulls when Derrick Rose is out of the lineup is certainly a less daunting task than when they are at full strength, but the Pistons still produced one of their better defensive efforts of the season in tonight’s 83-71 loss to still pretty good Chicago team.
The Pistons lost because they couldn’t contend with Chicago’s strength — Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Carlos Boozer were monsters on the offensive glass, combining to grab 17. Nine of those 17 came in the fourth quarter, producing 10 second chance points in the quarter and helping push the Bulls’ four-point lead into double digits.
The game, unlike some recent matchups in Detroit’s 14 straight losses to Chicago, stayed competitive most of the way because the Pistons used their length and speed to counter Chicago’s strength advantage. Detroit forced Chicago into 19 turnovers by constantly getting their hands in passing lanes. Now, they were partially helped by the sloppy ball-handling of Chicago’s guards, but Brandon Knight had one of his most active defensive games, a positive sign from a player who is quick and long-armed enough to eventually become a really good defensive point guard. Knight had a steal and two blocked shots and helped hold Chicago point guards C.J. Watson and John Lucas to 4-for-18 shooting.
The team’s other starting guard, Austin Daye, also had two blocked shots and had three steals. In fact, Knight and Daye were the only two Pistons to block a shot in the game. Daye had his second straight positive defensive performance. He struggled shooting the ball (5-for-14), but I’m not convinced it was his poor shooting that was keeping him out of the lineup anyway. Lawrence Frank has shown a willingness to roll with players who are struggling offensively as long as the defensive effort is there, and defense has always been the lacking or even non-existent part of Daye’s game. He faced tough defenders tonight in Ronnie Brewer and Luol Deng, so I’m not too worried about the poor shooting. In fact, I’m encouraged that the poor shooting didn’t torpedo his confidence at the other end of the court as it often does. He remained competitive and energetic even when his shot wasn’t falling. That’s a huge mental hurdle he has yet to overcome as a NBA player and tonight was a positive sign that he has the ability to contribute more than just occasional spot-up shooting.
The defensive performance was far from flawless — Jason Maxiell gave up some way too easy baskets to Carlos Boozer early and, although they played hard on defense, Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko were just out-muscled on the boards all night. Still, there was much more positive to take away from the defensive effort tonight than negative, and it has been a rarity to be able to write that this season.
Starting, not closing, quarters was a problem
Bad teams frequently do a poor job of closing out quarters strong, and the Pistons have been no exception this season. Tonight though, the Pistons were down eight with less than three minutes to go in the third and cut it to four by the end of the third.
Unfortunately, they didn’t carry that momentum into the fourth. Kyle Korver hit a three, then Taj Gibson hit a jumper and was fouled to push the lead to 10 in the opening minute of the fourth. That was a theme all game for the Pistons — they worked very hard to get the game close, then Chicago would answer with a series of easy baskets to push the lead back up.
Monroe’s tough 14 points
Greg Monroe has been passive over the last few games when it comes to establishing good position and creating the types of shots he was regularly getting earlier in the season. Tonight, he wasn’t getting great position and he was taking shots a bit out of his comfort zone, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Monroe fought for every inch he could get against Noah and Omer Asik. Usually though, they succeeded in making him catch it a little further from the basket than he wanted the ball. Unlike a previous meeting this season when Monroe successfully beat Noah off the dribble several times, Chicago was giving plenty of help, making it difficult for him to put it on the floor. Monroe scored 14 on 7-for-13 shooting, but none of those baskets came easily. Four of his points were a result of tip-ins where he absorbed a lot of contact and was sent crashing to the floor. Four more came on heavily contested jumpers.
Monroe was involved in the offense — he also had five assists — but more importantly, he had zero turnovers despite facing constant pressure from Chicago. He’s had more dominant performances this season, but I don’t think he’s performed better against a tough, physical defense that came after him than he did tonight.
About that bench …
Chicago’s defense was physical and intense. Other than Monroe, Maxiell and Ben Wallace (who only took four and two shots respectively), no one on the Pistons shot well. But the starters at least were competitive against the Chicago defense. The reserves? Not so much. Will Bynum, Damien Wilkins and Jonas Jerebko combined to go 2-for-19. Bynum, in particular, played really poorly (0-for-8 shooting, 0 assists, 0 steals and a turnover). Wilkins and Jerebko were at least able to make some hustle plays. Jerebko came up with five offensive rebounds and Wilkins had a nice, clean contest on a Watson breakaway layup, forcing a miss, in the fourth quarter, although Wilkins did pay the price by taking a hard elbow to the face. But with a depleted lineup, the Pistons desperately needed some scoring out of at least one of those guys (and Bynum should’ve been the most likely candidate). It just never materialized.
Knight’s offense
Couple of things about Knight’s stat line that his detractors will surely jump on: he only had one assist and he didn’t shoot well overall. I’m going to give him a pass on both counts.
First, they needed him to be aggressive as a scorer tonight with both Stuckey and Gordon out. On top of that, with Bynum struggling, Knight was their only player capable of consistently beating his man off the dribble and creating shots for himself or drawing the attention of the defense. He did those things pretty well most of the game. Until he forced three bad shots late in the game with the Pistons trying to get back in it, he was a respectable 7-for-15. As for his assists, he found open teammates several times for open jumpers, resulting in misses. Jerebko, Prince and Daye all missed wide open threes in the second half that should’ve been assists for Knight. Knight’s offense wasn’t terrible and his defense was pretty good. His effort was a big reason the game stayed as close as it did.
No Hamilton
Despite getting medical clearance to play, Tom Thibodeau held Rip Hamilton out of the lineup as a healthy scratch. On Twitter as the game was about to start, I was reading tweets from Chicago fans who were worried that Hamilton might be rushing back from his latest injury simply to face his former team. He’s already done that once this season, and he re-aggravated his injury in that game.
Hamilton being stubborn/prideful even to the possible detriment of his own health? I’m shocked to hear such a thing. Never change, Rip.
With Rodney Stuckey injured, Brandon Knight fills bigger role, but can’t match Kyrie Irving; Pistons top Cavs, anyway
Brandon Knight and Kyrie Irving probably have similar ceilings. But Irving is much, much, much, much more polished, and that’s why he went No. 1 in the draft – seven spots ahead of Knight.
The difference between the two was abundantly clear in the Pistons’ 87-75 win over the Cavaliers tonight.
Either by pick-and-rolls or straight drives, Irving (22 points, nine rebounds and six assists) got wherever he wanted while Knight guarded him. Knight never bumped Irving on the perimeter, allowing Irving to get a full head of steam, and that point, Knight didn’t have the lateral quickness to keep Irving out of the lane. Once in the paint, Irving typically made the right decision, shooting or passing.
By comparison, Will Bynum, not exactly the best defender, did a much better job of keeping Irving on the perimeter or forcing him into off-balance drives. Of course, the talented Irving still converted some of those looks.
On the other end, it almost like Knight wanted to prove he could match Irving, which I didn’t necessarily mind for a couple reasons. 1. Rodney Stuckey left the game in the first quarter with a groin injury, leaving a huge playmaking burden on Knight. 2. Knight attempted to duplicate Irving with such vigor, I had to appreciate his effort.
But Knight’s most consistent halfcourt offensive skill is shooting spot-up jumpers, and when he tried to drive, the results were mixed. His drives seemed more strained than Irving’s, and rather than ending with an easy layup or pass, Knight – if he didn’t already have the ball knocked away – had to force something. Knight looked like he took a beating, consistently throwing himself into defenders. That showed great determination, but not necessarily great results.
On one occasion, Irving baited Knight into throwing a pass, swooped into the passing lane and took off for a layup that the Pistons stopped only by fouling.
I like the signs from Knight (16 points, five assists and four rebounds), and I love the grit. But Irving is on a whole other level, and that just shows how far Knight has to go.
Greg Monroe gets force fed with negative result
In his previous four games Greg Monroe has scored just 10, 12, 5 and 13 points. The big reason he was scoring below his scoring average was because two other stats were below his average:
Field-goal attempts: 4, 10, 5 and 9.
Free-throw attempts: 4, 2, 1 and 2
Monroe often deserves many shots because he establishes good position, uses his hands to securely receive passes and works his feet adeptly to create a good look. A lot typically goes right before he releases the ball.
That wasn’t the case tonight.
The Pistons force fed him the ball, and he seemed intent on shooting more often than not, regardless of how the defense played him. Maybe this was the plan to get him out of his slump. If that was the case, I didn’t like it, and it didn’t work.
Aside from putbacks, Monroe (eight points, 10 rebounds and three turnovers) shot 3-of-12. I don’t see how forcing bad looks – whether his impromptu decisions within the offense or by design – helps get him back on track.
Tayshaun Prince steps up
I’ve spent most of the recap discussing what went wrong, but obviously something went right, because the Pistons won. A lot of what went right was Tayshaun Prince.
Rodney Stuckey left the game in the first quarter, and Ben Gordon was already out, leaving the Pistons desperate for a scorer.
Enter Prince.
He scored 18 of his game-high 29 points in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting with no turnovers. In that time, his teammates shot 37 percent with eight turnovers.
Prince showed all his scoring skills – making 4-of-4 3-pointers, putting the ball on the floor to get to the rim, finishing in transition and posting up. He delivered exactly what the Pistons needed.
Greg Monroe and Austin Daye defend well
I already praised Will Bynum’s defense, so this post might be unprecedented, because I’m about to praise Greg Monroe’s and Austin Daye’s defense, too.
I don’t know if Monroe (two steals and two blocks) and Daye (two steals and two blocks) made every rotation correctly, but when they were near the player with the ball, they did an excellent job contesting shots. Both weren’t afraid to be a little physical, and both used their length inside.
If they defend like that the rest of the season, I’ll be thrilled.
Brandon Knight and Rodney Stuckey fuel crazy comeback to cap bad game
WASHINGTON – Rodney Stuckey made the shots, but Brandon Knight made the splash.
With three minutes left, Knight flew over Detroit’s bench trying to save the ball between his legs. On the other side, he crashed into a cooler with full cups on top.
“Guy took a shower during the game – that doesn’t happen a lot ,” Lawrence Frank said. “But I thought that pumped our guys up. He goes over the top. There was a great spark that I think triggered, just to see the fight he showed.”
Knight’s hustle, evident since the start of the second half, set the tone for a 13-point comeback that became complete on Stuckey’s 3-pointer with 55 seconds left and changed the game’s outcome with Stuckey’s stepback jumper with 0.2 seconds left.
If the hooting and hollering heard in the Pistons’ locker room after their 79-77 win over the Wizards on Monday was any indication, Detroit needed this after losing five straight. Increasing lottery odds is always helpful, but so is rewarding hustle. The Pistons learned a lesson tonight about how to win that will, hopefully, stick with them.
Knight, although he couldn’t remember a save attempt quite like this one, didn’t need a lesson how to do it.
“You just don’t want to clip nothing to make you fall on your face,” Knight said.
That wasn’t the only unrefined part of the contest for Knight, who shot 3-of-13. But before the game, Ben Wallace talked about playing hard even when the individual results aren’t there. Knight (seven assists, six rebounds, three steals and one turnover) definitely held up his end of the bargain.
So did Stuckey, who picked up three first-half charges, missed six of his first eight shots and didn’t get to the free-throw line early. But he kept battling through his toe injury, and before the night ended, his game caught up to his effort.
In the end, it’s neither lottery odds nor learning how to play in tight games that was most important. As Stuckey pointed out, more than inspiring his teammates, Knight’s dive had another positive outcome.
“Luckily, he’s OK,” Stuckey said. “He’s not hurt. A lot of water fell on him, but he’ll be good, though.”
That was … nearly lockout-ruined
The Wizards were in the third game of a back-to-back-to-back and fifth game in six days. The Pistons were playing their third in four days and eighth straight in a different city. It showed – until a spirited final few minutes.
“It was an ugly, grimy, grindy – I mean, the first half, the NBA called and they were about to throw us both out of the building,” Frank said.
Ben Gordon injured
Ben Gordon played just six minutes with a strained groin, so Austin Daye and Will Bynum (switching on and off with Knight as point guard) saw increased backcourt minutes.
Daye missed all three of his shots, and Bynum went just 2-for-7. Neither had an assist. If Gordon is an out an extended period of time, it will be interesting to see how Frank spreads backup minutes going forward.
Most Valuable Player
Jordan Crawford (21 points on 9-of-16 shooting) shot well on a night nobody else did, and he opportunistically collected five assists and three steals.
Stuckey’s game winner
Hopefully Rodney Stuckey returns to full strength against Wizards
Essentials
- Teams: Detroit Pistons at Washington Wizards
- Date: March 26, 2012
- Time: 7 p.m.
- Television: Fox Sports Detroit Plus
Records
- Pistons: 16-32
- Wizards: 11-37
Probable starters
Pistons:
Wizards:
- John Wall
- Jordan Crawford
- Chris Singleton
- Kevin Seraphin
- Nene
Las Vegas projection
Spread: Pistons -2
Over/under: 194
Score: Pistons win, 98-96
