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Johnson, KCP dazzle as shorthanded Pistons drop preseason opener 115-112 to Indiana

Defensive cohesion takes time a Pistons team with many new faces hasn’t yet been granted and a fine-tuned offense requires a dynamic point guard currently unavailable to them. So there were predictable hiccups at both ends of the court in their 115-112 preseason opening loss to Indiana.

But there was also a fairly exhilarating peek into their future, too.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was declared by Stan Van Gundy to be the Pistons best player of the first week of training camp and he did nothing to start the second week that will cause him to lose the lead, scoring 22 points in 26 minutes and drilling his first six 3-point attempts.

But Stanley Johnson is on his heels. The rookie scored 26 points in a dazzling 34-minute NBA debut. It’s a measure of Van Gundy’s confidence in the 19-year-old’s makeup that he opened the third quarter with Johnson playing point guard on one end and guarding Pacers superstar Paul George – who announced his return to full health after a horrific summer 2013 leg injury with a 20-point first quarter – on the other.

“It’s quite a load,” Van Gundy agreed. “A huge load. But our best stretch of the game came when he played the point.”

“It’s basketball,” Johnson shrugged afterward. “Any position I play, you’ve got to expect to do a lot of things. I came in here talking about how I can do so many things. Now you’ve got to do it. I didn’t think I did as good a job as I should have. I think there were three plays that stood out that I think cost the game for us – my two turnovers at the top of the frontcourt and then I got back doored with two seconds, three seconds left on the shot clock. You lose games doing that type of stuff.”

The Pistons turned it over 13 times in the first half and allowed Indiana to score more than 30 points in the first and fourth quarters, showing there is plenty to work on at both ends.

But it was telling that their best moments came when Van Gundy – without his top three point guards due to injury – put Johnson at point guard to run the offense with Caldwell-Pope, Andre Drummond, Marcus Morris and Reggie Bullock.

“That’s probably the best defensive lineup we could put on the floor,” he said. “And it wasn’t really a shock that that’s the best we played all night, even though no point guard because we were doing a better job at the defensive end of the floor. So that’s what it’s going to come down to for us and we need more people to come along.”

Van Gundy was disappointed by the defensive breakdowns that contributed to George’s 32-point night, but a lot of it was superb shot-making by one of the game’s best. The Pistons also got burned in Indiana’s 34-point first quarter by the turnovers and Indiana’s offensive rebounding.

“Probably the most disappointing thing of the whole night is we didn’t rebound the ball,” he said. “We got almost no long rebounds. Our guards did a really poor job of running down the ball.”

Except for the Johnson-sparked third quarter, at least, when the Pistons held the Pacers to 40 percent shooting, outscored them by 13 and outrebounded them 11-8. While Johnson guarded George and held him to 2 of 6 shooting, Caldwell-Pope played defensive point guard. When Reggie Jackson returns from what is anticipated to be a brief absence with Achilles tendon soreness, the possibilities are tantalizing.

“We have a lot of big guards, tall and a lot of muscle,” said Jodie Meeks, who was good off the bench with 15 points in 27 minutes. “I think we can mismatch guards and do a lot of switching and tonight you saw that a little bit.”

The Pistons outscored the Pacers 33-17 to turn a seven-point deficit into a nine-point lead before Johnson went to the bench in the third quarter.

“I think when you get Reggie out there guarding the point guard and you put me in my position and KCP in his position and you have Marcus (Morris) in the game and (Andre Drummond), that’s a lot of size. If we get stops, it’s going to be a lot of pressure on you getting back because we can all spot shoot and you’ve got one of the best athletes in the game, Andre, cleaning up stuff.”

As disappointed as Van Gundy was with aspects of the game, mostly the defensive end, he liked what he saw from Caldwell-Pope and Johnson, who hit 3 of 6 from the 3-point arc and was 7 of 9 at the foul line, among the many who contributed offensively.

“He’s just been really, really good,” he said of Caldwell-Pope. “He’s in great shape, he’s got great focus. There were some good things. He and Andre, Stanley, I thought Marcus came alive offensively in the second half and rebounded the entire game. Jodie played well offensively.”

Of Johnson, Van Gundy said, “Certainly saw some rookie moments, but you saw a real competitive guy. I think that’s the main thing. That guy’s really, really competitive. That is a competitor, a winner. His will was so strong that at times he was forcing plays, but I’d rather deal with that. He’s a tough guy and I think that showed through tonight.”

Sure did. The things that led to a preseason loss were clear and understandable given the circumstances and are sure to be addressed. The things that make their future brighter were just as clear. Stanley Johnson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were at the front of that line.