The Pistons, getting two consecutive days off for just the third time since the season began, have still played more games than any team in the Eastern Conference, 26. Only four other East teams have played as many as 25 games.
Here’s what that means for Stan Van Gundy: The two practices he held Monday and today were the first consecutive practice days since training camp.
That’s the tangible impact of playing such a hectic early-season schedule. At a time of the season when coaches cherish practice time to clean up the inevitable problems as they crop up or to continue the gradual season-long installation of new gadgets to throw at opponents, the Pistons have had one hand tethered to their back.
“A lot of cleanup, tweaking things and trying to really work on some very basic things,” Van Gundy said after today’s practice and before the Pistons get back on the treadmill with three games over the next four nights and four in six, including a road trip to Dallas and Washington before coming home for their seventh back-to-back set by hosting Indiana on Saturday, then heading right back out of town for a Monday game at Chicago.
The Pistons are 2-0 in games coming off consecutive days off. They routed Denver at The Palace in early November in the first instance, but it’s the second that is both more recent and more revelatory. After a day off on Nov. 27 following a back to back, the Pistons practiced Nov. 28 and then launched a 3-0 road trip that also took them to Boston and Atlanta with a rousing win at Charlotte.
Van Gundy felt good about the two days of practice, but has been around long enough to know it doesn’t always translate to immaculate performances the next time out.
“We’ll find out, I guess. Seemed productive, but until you walk out there and play, you have no idea.”
At 13-13, the Pistons currently sit in the No. 8 playoff position, though the East remains tightly packed with just 2½ games separating the No. 3 team (New York) from No. 10 (Milwaukee).
Given both the quantity of games and quality of opponent the Pistons have played to date – until hosting Philadelphia on Sunday, they’d played the most difficult schedule in the East and it remains among the top 10 – on top of the absence of Reggie Jackson for the first 21 games and his not unexpected inconsistencies to date, they’re in relatively strong position.
And their defensive rating – No. 3 overall behind Utah and Atlanta – is something that Van Gundy surely finds most encouraging.
Whatever leaks Van Gundy has spotted defensively, he used the precious two practice days to address.
“Some very basic things, like being more active with our hands defensively, doing a better job on our closeouts,” he said. “Some of it not very sexy stuff – just stuff it takes to win games.”
The Pistons rank 27th in both forcing turnovers and blocked shots, but Van Gundy doesn’t design his defense to put his team at risk by gambling for steals or overextending itself.
“We’re not really, very many times, going to keep you from getting shots,” he said. “We’re not turning you over very much, so we’ve got to make sure you’re taking tough shots and we’ve got to rebound the ball. Those two things are really important to us – that the quality of shots is not as high and that we rebound the ball.”
They had two days to worry about the details that get trampled by playing 26 games in the season’s first 47 days. They’ll get a chance to put the results into evidence on the road in Dallas and Washington.