FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 121-98 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum
A SHOOTOUT, THEN ... – Heck of a game – for eight minutes. The Pistons kept pace with the NBA’s best team – by record, at least – for that long. But it was a shootout and in a game pitting the NBA’s No. 2 team in true shooting percentage (Milwaukee) vs. the team that ranks 29th in that category, and, well, the Pistons probably didn’t feel great about winning that type of game. Milwaukee went on a 10-0 run to close the first quarter to overcome the 27-25 lead the Pistons held and never trailed after that, expanding the lead to 21 in the second quarter by shooting 70 percent over the first half. The Pistons never got it below 15 in the second half. Blake Griffin scored 20 of his 29 points and Reggie Jackson 15 of his 19 in the first half. Brook Lopez led the Bucks with 25 points, hitting 7 of 12 from the 3-point arc. Milwaukee shot 59.5 percent. The loss was the third straight for the Pistons to start a four-game road trip that wraps up Wednesday at Memphis. Their record is 16-19, a season-worst three games under .500.
EASY POINTS – One reason the Bucks came into the game with the NBA’s best record (25-10) was their offensive efficiency. The Bucks rank No. 2 in the NBA in offense at 112.7 – they’re also No. 3 in defense at 104 and are quite easily No. 1 in net rating at 8.6 – and they get their points via 3-point shots and at the rim, the shots Dwane Casey’s playbook is designed to create for the Pistons. The Bucks came into the game No. 4 in points in the paint and the Pistons were 24th in opposition points in the paint. In the first half, when Milwaukee ran its lead as high as 21 points, the Bucks held a whopping 42-18 edge in points in the paint even though they took just three more shots there, making 21 of 26 to 9 of 23 for the Pistons. Milwaukee finished with 66 points in the paint two games after Indiana scored 68 in the paint.
ROTATION TWEAKS – With Zaza Pachulia unavailable after suffering a contusion to his right calf in Sunday’s game at Orlando, it naturally meant Jon Leuer was the call to play behind Andre Drummond at center. Leuer, though, also took backup minutes at power forward. Stanley Johnson missed the game after taking a Nic Vucevic knee to the thigh in Orlando in Sunday and feeling discomfort in pregame warmups. Leuer wound up playing 26 minutes and gave the Pistons six points and nine rebounds.When Langston Galloway, who’d gone 0 of 7 from the 3-point arc in the past two games, missed his first three shots, two of them triples, Dwane Casey gave rookie Khyri Thomas, who’d played a total of 31 minutes over six games, a four-minute run – probably as much to find someone who could stay in front of point guard Eric Bledsoe was much as anything. Galloway didn’t return until the final five minutes with the game out of hand. Thomas finished with 13 points and played the last few minutes at point guard. With 10 minutes left and the Pistons trailing by 24, Casey went with rookie Bruce Brown at that spot. Casey said before the game that while Ish Smith’s rehab is going well, he probably won’t be re-evaluated for another week or so. Smith was hurt on the Pistons’ previous trip to Milwaukee on Dec. 5. Glenn Robinson III played the final seven minutes in his first action since spraining his left ankle on Dec. 10.