INDIANAPOLIS – When a team makes 14 of its first 16 shots, it says … something.
“That we weren’t ready to play,” Stan Van Gundy said with characteristic bluntness after the Pistons spotted Indiana an early 16-point lead. “And that we didn’t compete on the defensive end of the floor.”
They fought back, as they always do, but this habit of digging big early holes – Indiana shot 68 percent in the first half and stretched its lead to 20 with 20 minutes left in the game – is getting wearisome.
What should the level of concern be with the Pistons unable to build any momentum?
“Tremendous,” Reggie Jackson said after the 112-104 loss. “We can’t put together more than a one-game win streak as of late. Something for us to be worried about. We’ve got to get a lot better.”
“It’s definitely a concern,” said Anthony Tolliver, who scored a season-high 17 to spark the comeback on a night the starter at his position, Ersan Ilyasova, exemplified the sputtering of the starters, finishing with four points and zero rebounds in 18 lackluster minutes. “We’ve been up and down all year. We’ll see what happens. It’s up to us as players. We’re the ones out there. We’re the ones that have to change it. We just have to get better.”
Indiana’s win not only vaulted the Pacers back over the Pistons into the No. 7 playoff position in the East, it also gives the Pacers the season series 3-1 and the tiebreaker over them should it come into play after 82 games. With Charlotte’s win over Washington, the Hornets also pulled within 1½ games of the Pistons for the final playoff spot.
“That was a really big game for us, so we’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and stay positive and hopefully turn a corner here before All-Star (break),” Tolliver said.
The Pistons cut their deficit to six headed to the fourth quarter and came as close as four points twice inside the final two minutes, but the Pacers finished the game much as they started it – scoring on virtually every possession down the stretch.
“There weren’t too many times in the game we defended,” Van Gundy said. “A little bit in the second half. We played for a quarter, a quarter and a half in Boston (on Wednesday). I thought we played for two quarters against New York (on Thursday) and I thought we played for about a quarter and a half tonight. That’s not going to get it done.”
“You’re pretty gassed out trying to come back,” Jackson said of the Pistons, who were playing their sixth game in the past nine days. “We dug ourselves a hole. We continue to do so. We’ve been fortunate enough to come back this season with some of ’em, but can’t win too many like that, fighting from behind all the time.”
Jackson brought up an issue he’s addressed periodically over the past several weeks as the Pistons, once a top-10 defensive team, continue to see their play at that end deteriorate.
“Mostly I feel it’s got to be communication. Talk your teammates into being in the right spot and talk yourself into being in the right spot – communicating, also leading to energy. … There’s five people out there, so one person can try to spark it, (but) doesn’t matter if they try to do it for 48 minutes by themselves. We’ve got to do it collectively. We’ve got to want to talk to each other on the court. Probably need to get to a point where it’s just mindless talking, talking everything out – every screen, every pin-down, and from there get better with it. We just need to literally talk everything that’s happening so we can put ourselves in better position to defend.”
Van Gundy tried pulling strings to snap the Pistons out of their early lethargy. He yanked three starters – Ilyasova, Andre Drummond and Stanley Johnson – with 4:17 left in the first quarter with the Pistons trailing 24-10.
“It’s a little tough to go with all five, but it’s the first time all year we haven’t had any of the starters finish the first quarter,” Van Gundy said. “They just brought nothing to the game – nothing.”
The Pistons didn’t help themselves by shooting 16 of 31 at the foul line, 14 of 23 aside from Drummond’s 2 of 8. Or by sending Indiana to the line for 29 attempts, continuing a recent trend of too much fouling. Van Gundy took the hit for that one. Pacers star Paul George scored 30 points on just 13 shots, hitting 14 of 15 at the line.
“Part of it is a coaching thing,” Van Gundy said. “On those pick and rolls where we were fouling Paul George, we’ve got to try to come up with some answer on that. I can’t blame our guys on that. I don’t know how many bad fouls we had. I think three or four that led to a lot of free throws are on coaching and teaching technique that we’ve got to give some thought to. And so I’ll take the blame there.”
There was plenty to go around.
“For some reason, we’re really struggling putting together 48 minutes of defense,” Tolliver said. “And it came back to bite us again tonight.”