The Pistons had the first part of Dwane Casey’s offensive trilogy – drive, kick, swing – down pat Sunday night. They were less proficient with the second and third and downright awful at the part left unspoken – putting the ball in the basket.
Their shot ratio of 25 3-point attempts among their 82 shots was well below their season profile – the Pistons are 12th in the NBA in 3-point attempt rate with 41 percent of their attempts coming from long distance – so Sunday’s 30 percent wasn’t ideal.
But you can win that way if you make better than 16 percent of 3-point attempts – or if you do better than the 44.7 percent the Pistons managed on shots in the paint. You can’t win – not often enough to matter, at least – when you don’t move the needle at either end of Casey’s shot spectrum.
The Pistons weren’t making outside shots, so it seemed their response was to put their head down and barrel into the paint at all costs. That led to a lot of contested shots in heavy traffic at the rim.
“Chicago, they played that well,” Frank Jackson said after the 100-86 loss to the Bulls. “They really clogged the paint. I think we missed some kickouts at times and tried to force some tough twos. That’s game-planning. We’ve got to do a better job of making the easy play.”
Jackson, coming off a season-high 23 points in Friday’s win at Houston, missed his first five shots before making one late in the first half.
A few of his teammates weren’t as adept at reversing a tough start. Josh Jackson also missed his first five shots in the first half, then missed his first five of the second half and finished 1 of 12. Saddiq Bey, coming off consecutive 20-point games for the first time all season, missed his first eight shots – five of them 3-pointers – before finally breaking the ice on a triple at the final buzzer.
The four made threes was a season low for the Pistons. Nobody made more than one. Yes, the Pistons miss Wayne Ellington, who was out for a fourth straight game with a hip injury. They were also without Rodney McGruder and recently acquired Hamidou Diallo.
“We’ll get some troops back,” Casey said. “I think Wayne will loosen that up some. That will make it easier for everybody. Makes the driving alleys easier for Jerami (Grant). The point guard can get in there when you have a threat out there knocking them down.”
Grant, who scored a career-best 43 points last month at Chicago, started off as if he’d establish another career high at the Bulls’ expense, scoring 14 points in the first 10 minutes and making his first five shots. But Grant finished just 9 of 22 from the field and missed his last six 3-point attempts after making his first.
“Once we got in there, we didn’t kick it out,” Casey said after the 100-86 loss. “I don’t know what we were at the rim; it wasn’t very good. That tells you it was closed up in there. I don’t know what it was, but we lost that locked-in focus right before halftime and the frustration set in and then it turned into turnovers and that’s when they took off.”
The Bulls, who trailed almost all of the first half until an 8-2 closing run gave them a 46-45 lead, eventually figured it out and executed the offense Casey promotes – getting the ball inside and then spotting open 3-point shooters. Chicago wound up hitting 14 of 28 from the 3-point arc mostly because of the quality of those attempts, including many of the most coveted – the corner three.
Casey continued to tinker with lineup combinations, including using rookie Isaiah Stewart some at power forward in the fourth quarter alongside Mason Plumlee. Stewart had another positive outing, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes. He hit 5 of 8 shots and 1 of 2 from the 3-point arc. Stewart is 6 of 13 from the 3-point line for the season but 4 of 6 in just the last three games.
“Still figuring it out,” Stewart said of playing farther from the basket. “That’s my first time playing the four, really, in my life. It’s different, but I’m going to continue to watch film and to work at it and see how I can continue to be better at playing that four spot with Mason.”