When veteran teams solve problems, they tend to stay solved. For young teams, it’s a little like playing whack-a-mole. You focus on two or three holes and master them momentarily, but then the ones you ignore tear your garden to shreds.
The Pistons struggled mightily on offense for the first month of the season, staying at or above .500 for nearly every step on the strength of their defense. As their offense took flight in early December, their defense started to suffer.
So Stan Van Gundy pounded defense into their heads at Thursday’s practice and Saturday morning’s shootaround after a one-day Christmas respite – going back to the most basic pick-and-roll fundamentals and hammering the need to get back in transition – and, sure enough, signs of progress were evident on Saturday against Boston.
But the offense was back in mid-November form – 13 first-half turnovers, 38 percent shooting for the game, a paltry 16 assists for the night.
“We didn’t take care of the ball and we didn’t pass the ball – simple as that,” Van Gundy said of the 99-93 loss, the second straight after three straight tough wins over good teams to leave the Pistons at 17-14. “We didn’t take care of it and we didn’t pass it. Steve (Blake) passed it, but that was about it.”
They fell 16 points down early in the fourth quarter and might never have given themselves a puncher’s chance to win the game – they fought back to within two points with 32 seconds left and could have had a chance to force overtime or win but for a back-breaking basket late in the shot clock by Jonas Jerebko with 10.7 seconds left – if not for rookie Stanley Johnson’s spark.
“Everybody wants to know what was said in the locker room – that has nothing to do with leadership,” Van Gundy said. “Leadership is what Stanley did defensively. That gets people going. You have to do something. You can’t talk about energy. No. You need to set a tone and I thought Stanley did that and got us playing a little bit. But you can’t just play one quarter every game.”
“The way Stanley played in that fourth quarter was incredible,” said Andre Drummond, who recorded his fifth 20-20 game of the season with 22 points and 22 boards. “It was sad that it wasn’t enough to get us over the hump, but I feel like the energy he brought should be put forth throughout the rest of the game.”
Johnson finished with 12 points, all in the second half, and the type of grit the 19-year-old showed reflects his competitive drive and was a major allure for the Pistons and Van Gundy in making him the eight pick in June’s draft.
“I felt like it got disrespectful, the way they were beating us,” Johnson said. “It was almost like they had a game plan and everything was working like how they drew it up. Like Brad Stevens went to sleep last night and dreamed about how they would beat us and then they would beat us that way. I was just tired of watching it happen.”
But Drummond’s dominance inside, Johnson’s second-half burst and Blake’s steady hand in dealing out six assists in his 21 minutes were pretty much the only highlights for the Pistons offensively. Reggie Jackson scored eight points in the last six minutes to finish with 17 points and two assists, but until returning midway through the fourth quarter he’d registered only one assist against three turnovers.
“Can’t move the ball if you turn it over before you even get into the offense,” he said. “I think we’re doing things we’re not accustomed to – pushing the ball and playing too fast. The guys were turning the ball over. I know I had two in the first half. Team’s just got to be better.”
“They did a good job keeping him out of the paint,” Van Gundy said. “So there were passes available and he didn’t see them.”
A new mole has reared its head, too. For the third straight game, Pistons starters – so very good in extended minutes for the first third of the season – got off to bad starts in either or both halves of games.
“You go to the Miami game – awful start, not ready to go, bench has to pick us up,” Van Gundy said. “The Atlanta game, awful start, not ready to go. Tonight, awful start, not ready to go, not good in the third quarter.”
“We need to get back to what we’re good at,” Drummond said. “I feel like we’ve lost our identity a little bit. Now that our shots are falling a little bit more, we’ve taken a step back defensively and it starts with me. I feel like I haven’t been staying on the guys about different things defensively and I’ve got to be better, as well, being the anchor.”
But cut out the 13 first-half turnovers and put Boston’s defense on the move a little more by cutting hard and passing decisively and the Pistons likely would have had enough defense to win it.
“When the ball doesn’t move and there’s no crispness and there’s no energy, that’s what ends up happening,” Van Gundy said. “It’s just all products of the same thing. We were very lethargic offensively. They’re a very good defensive team and if you don’t play at a high energy level and move the ball crisply and cut hard, you’re going to have trouble.”