FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Sunday night’s 118-106 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center
THAT’S A WRAP – The Pistons saw enough from Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and Killian Hayes to know they go into the 2022-23 season with prominent roles. For the season finale, Dwane Casey continued auditioning for a supporting cast. Cunningham sat out the finale with right hip soreness, joining Jerami Grant, Marvin Bagley III, Cory Joseph and Hamidou Diallo on the injured list. Kelly Olynyk didn’t play, either, as Luka Garza filled his role behind Isaiah Stewart. Bey, Stewart and Hayes played in the first half, then stepped aside. Carsen Edwards, Luka Garza, Saben Lee and Jamorko Pickett did the heavy lifting after halftime, leaving a final impression before the Pistons enter into a critical off-season. The 76ers, somewhat surprisingly, sat both Joel Embiid and James Harden despite ample motivation to win and take a shot at the No. 3 seed, which required a Philadelphia win and a Boston loss at Memphis. Whatever motivation the 76ers had to win dissipated quickly, though, when Boston took a 23-point halftime lead at Memphis, which rested all its starters with the No. 2 seed locked up in the West. The Pistons trailed by 14, closed first half on a 16-4 run and then scored the first seven points of the second half to lead by five. They trailed 98-97 with nine minutes to play when Philadelphia went on a 14-1 run. Garza led the Pistons with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Pistons.
ALL 82 – Saddiq Bey started, as he had for the previous 81 games this season, making him one of only five players in the NBA to play in all 82 games. Bey, who set the Pistons franchise record for 3-pointers made in a season and finished with 211 after going 0 of 1 in 13 first-half minutes, has the NBA’s second-longest active games played streak (127) behind only Mikal Bridges of Phoenix. Bey was voted to the NBA’s All-Rookie first team last season and came back an improved and more versatile player in year two, establishing himself firmly as a core piece for the Pistons. He averaged 16.2 points and 5.4 rebounds a game and played 2,704 total minutes, more than 600 more than Cade Cunningham, who was second on the team. Isaiah Stewart and Killian Hayes, drafted in the first round with Bey in 2020, also finished the season on an upswing. Stewart finished with 10 points, six rebounds and two assists in 13 minutes and hit 2 of 2 from the 3-point line, giving him 11 makes in 18 attempts over his last eight games after going 4 of 28 from the arc in the first 74 games. Hayes scored eight points in 10 minutes after scoring in double figures in eight of his previous 10 games.
LOCKED IN – With Sunday’s loss, the Pistons are locked in to the No. 3 position for the May 17 NBA draft lottery. That means they’ll join Houston (20-62) and Orlando (21-60 going into Sunday night’s game vs. Miami) as the three teams with the best odds at drawing a top-four pick. The Pistons will have a 14 percent chance at landing the No. 1 pick and a 52 percent chance at landing a top-four pick. Their single likeliest outcome, at 26 percent, is to pick at No. 6. They could pick no lower than seventh, which would require four teams picking behind them to draw top-four picks. The Pistons last year won the lottery for the first time in history – and, in fact, moved up in the lottery for the first time ever. The last time the Pistons picked first was in 1970 when they picked Bob Lanier. The top three prospects are generally considered to be big men Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith and Paolo Banchero. Purdue’s Jaden Ivy and Iowa’s Keegan Murray are also considered likely high to mid-lottery picks.