FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Sunday afternoon’s 98-95 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Little Caesars Arena
DAMAGING LOSS – For three quarters, the Pistons had nothing to spark them. Not Blake Griffin being himself, not Andre Drummond dominating the paint, not Reggie Bullock with a flurry of 3-point shots, not the collective output of their bench. Then Langston Galloway finally lit the fuse. Galloway scored the team’s first 14 points of the quarter, bringing them back from 13 points down, and gave them a chance. But the basketball gods wound up punishing them for a lethargic performance against an overmatched team missing two starters, John Collins and Taurean Prince. The Pistons, once down 17, pulled within a point with 2:55 to play and had a chance to take the lead with less than two minutes left but a missed Reggie Jackson 3-pointer and a Jeremy Lin layup put Atlanta up three with 1:22 left. Two Jackson free throws cut it to one and a Zaza Pachulia steal – he played the entire fourth quarter and keyed their defense – gave the Pistons another chance to take the lead. Griffin missed two free throws with 23 seconds left, though, and the Pistons – after two Atlanta free throws and a Jackson layup with 13.2 seconds left, plus two more Atlanta free throws – could only muster a missed Galloway layup on their last-ditch attempt to force overtime. The Pistons were outrebounded 54-41 and shot just 17 of 27 at the foul line. Galloway scored 16 of his 18 in the fourth quarter to lead the Pistons.
SLIPPERY SLOPE – The East is very forgiving – the Washington Wizards started the day seven games under .500 but only three games out of the final playoff spot – but the Pistons are playing with fire by taking a 15-16 record into Christmas. They’ve played 18 of their 31 games at home and, after hosting Washington on Thursday, go on a four-game road trip this week in which their opponents went into Sunday’s games a cumulative 18 games over .500. They also have another four-game and a three-game road trip coming up in January. After hosting the Wizards, 11 of the next 16 games come on the road. The Pistons crushed Atlanta in their only previous meeting of the season, scoring 40 points in the first quarter on Nov. 9 at Atlanta and leading by 24 before the quarter ended. Dwane Casey said it was because they didn’t overlook Atlanta despite the Hawks poor record. That wasn’t the case this time around, apparently, despite the fact Atlanta had won its previous two games, both on the road. The Pistons, coming off a rugged three week stretch compounded by injuries in which they went 3-8, had to be looking at the Hawks as a breather – and got caught looking past them.
KENNARD STRUGGLING – Since scoring a career-high 28 points at Philadelphia on Dec. 10, Luke Kennard has scored 24 in six games with a high of 10 points. It’s not the boost Dwane Casey was looking for when he elevated Kennard to the starting lineup that night and moved Glenn Robinson III to the bench. (Robinson sprained his left ankle in that game and remains out.) Kennard came into Sunday’s game shooting 8 of 29 overall and 6 of 18 from the 3-point arc in the five games since his breakout game, in which the Pistons didn’t play Blake Griffin. Kennard scored the first Pistons basket on Sunday – a back-door layup fed to him by Andre Drummond – but didn’t score again, taking just two more shots in 9:26 of playing time. Kennard didn’t play after halftime, having ice packs applied to both knees to start the third quarter. Bruce Brown took his spot in the lineup.