FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 127-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
ANOTHER ROMP – Coming off their most decisive win of the season – a 34-point rout of San Antonio – the Pistons made Tuesday about showing the mental discipline to stay on task against another struggling team, Cleveland. They passed that personal test with flying colors. The Pistons won every quarter, outscoring Cleveland 62-46 in the first half and expanding the lead to a commanding 29 after three quarters. They got the shots they wanted – the Pistons shot 18 of 35 from the 3-point arc – kept their turnovers down (12), limited Cleveland’s 3-point looks and didn’t put the Cavs at the line excessively. There wasn’t much not to like. Blake Griffin scored 16 points in the first quarter to get them off and running and finished with 24 minutes. The Pistons, one game after putting four bench players in double figures, did so again with Christian Wood coming up two points short of making it four. The 18 3-pointers were a season high. Svi Mykhailiuk scored 15 points, setting a new career high for the second straight game.
BLAKE’S STROKE – The Pistons came into the game second to Toronto in 3-point percentage at .393 despite playing all but two games without Reggie Jackson and 12 without Blake Griffin, two of their top shooters from last season. The absence of Griffin and Jackson for that many games is felt more in their volume of 3-point shots, which had fallen to 31.3 a game this season, which leaves the Pistons 20th in attempts after last season’s 34.8 had them in sixth place. Griffin came into Cleveland shooting poorly at .239 after last season’s .362, so his 6 of 7 performance – Griffin hit 5 of 6 in a 19-point first half – will be encouraging all around. Griffin’s attempts are down from last year’s career-high 7.0 triples a game to 5.8 this year, though that’s almost wholly owing to his reduced minutes so far as he is eased back off of injury. Griffin’s attempts per-36 minutes are virtually unchanged from last season: 7.1 to last season’s 7.2. With the Pistons blowing out Cleveland, Griffin played just 24 minutes, meaning that he could be in line to play in his first back to back of the season.
DIVISION TOUR – In the season’s 21st game, the Pistons played their sixth road game against a division opponent. They’ve already finished their two trips apiece to Indiana and Chicago and have been to Milwaukee once. Their only division road games remaining in the season’s final 61 games are a Jan. 7 return trip to Cleveland and a March 23 visit to Milwaukee. The Pistons opened the season with a win at Indiana, then lost their next four division road games before the blowout win at Cleveland. Meanwhile, they’ve only played one division home game, beating Indiana on Oct. 28. The Bulls, Bucks and Cavaliers have yet to visit Little Caesars Arena, though Milwaukee changes that with a visit on Wednesday.