Three quick observations from Wednesday night’s 116-91 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Arena
DOUBLE WHAMMY – The Pistons got a second chance at Milwaukee but Milwaukee used second-chance points to complete a two-game sweep for the 2021 NBA champions. The Bucks built an early lead almost exclusively on the strength of offensive rebounding and conversions. By halftime, the Bucks had a 22-2 advantage in second-chance points in a season where New York’s 18.7 second-chance points a game leads the league. The Pistons rank third at 17.8 and the Bucks 14th at 14.8. The Bucks have a big size advantage – especially when they play Bobby Portis alongside Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokoumpo – and they made the Pistons pay whenever Isaiah Stewart either was switched out to the perimeter or was out of position after attempting to block a shot. Throw in the 13 first-half Pistons turnovers the Bucks converted into another 16 points and it’s a wonder the Pistons hung around as long as they did. Milwaukee shot just 2 of 22 from three in the first half and one of the makes – Jrue Holiday’s – came at the halftime buzzer to make it a nine-point Pistons deficit. The final tally of the double whammy of second-chance points and points off turnovers: 24 of the former and 28 of the latter off of 21 turnovers. Those were season worsts for the Pistons across the board. Bojan Bogdanovic, so consistently good in the early going, contributed a wildly uncharacteristic seven turnovers and had his left arm pinned painfully between Stewart and Milwaukee’s Grayson Allen when attempting to come around a Stewart screen in the third quarter. It’s fair to guess the Pistons got the attention of Milwaukee in Monday’s 110-108 loss when they came back from 15 down in the first half and 16 down in the second to tie with under a minute to play. Milwaukee, the NBA’s only undefeated team, matched the best start in franchise history at 7-0.
ROTATION TWEAKS – With Jalen Duren missing his second straight game since spraining his left ankle in Sunday’s win over Golden State – Dwane Casey said before the game Duren was at 75 or 80 percent and hoped he’d be available either this weekend or by next week – Nerlens Noel again backed up Isaiah Stewart. Casey again shortened his rotation, as he did Monday, and used nine players until waving Cory Joseph into the game in the final minute of the third quarter. One minor tweak: Instead of Jaden Ivey leaving the game prior to the end of the first quarter, then coming back to start the second while Cade Cunningham took a breather, it was Cunningham who exited first with Ivey staying on the floor. Casey then flipped the script back in the second half, leaving Cunningham out for the whole third quarter and taking Ivey out for Killian Hayes first. In the fourth quarter, with the Pistons trailing by 17, Casey used an all-bench unit for the first time in the last several games. It only lasted 2:28 before Casey brought most of his starters back.
MINI SERIES – Dwane Casey likes the NBA’s recent attempt to ease the burden of travel by having teams play the occasional mini-set in the same town as Atlanta did by playing successive games in Detroit a week ago and the Pistons just did in Milwaukee. One reason Casey likes it: To give his young players a taste of what a playoff series is like and how veteran teams of a certain caliber are able to make game-to-game adjustments. That more than likely had a hand in Cade Cunningham’s relative struggles in the rematch. After a scintillating four-game run where Cunningham averaged 27.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists, the Bucks made a concerted effort to gang defend Cunningham coming off screens and take away the mid-range game that’s been the major driver of his early-season success. Cunningham shot 1 of 8 in Wednesday’s first half and finished with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, making 4 of 5 shots in the second half before checking out midway through the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. Cunningham has proven a quick study in his season-plus in the NBA and he got two buckets early in the third quarter by making the Bucks show their hand and then getting all the way to the rim for a pair of layups.