Dwane Casey

Keith Langlois

He’s had one practice, barely knows the names much less the games of new teammates and won’t play his first home game for another 10 days. But through all of the fog, it wasn’t hard to see how Marvin Bagley III gives the Pistons a different look and can ultimately make them a more potent team.

“I liked it. I tell you what, he’s long,” Dwane Casey said after Bagley debuted with 10 points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes as the Pistons lost 103-94 at Washington. “His timing’s off a little bit, understandably, but he has an advantage in the post with his length and his ability to score around the basket. I really liked that. First play down the floor, he took a charge. I loved that.”

Bagley, at 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, can play on a higher plane than any other big man on the Pistons roster, underscored by his first-quarter basket when he took a high feed from Killian Hayes to score about as easy a basket at the rim in traffic as the Pistons have gotten all season. It’s a skill set they desperately need and one they’ll explore to the fullest depths over the season’s final 25 games.

“We’re excited to have him,” Saddiq Bey said. “In practice, workouts or games, just get him acclimated. Once he gets comfortable, he’ll definitely be a force for us.”

Bagley scored all four of his baskets around the rim, a hook shot from 10 feet out along the left baseline the deepest of his hoops. After playing nine minutes in the first half, Bagley was left out for one 12-minute stint of the second half and played a chunk of the fourth quarter with the starters at center. His stat line would have looked a little better, too, if he hadn’t missed four of his six free throws.

“He’s a little rusty,” Casey said, “but I like the way he plays.”

It was easy to like Bey’s performance, too. He scored 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. Beyond him, offense was a heavy lift for the Pistons all night. They were limited to just 23 3-point attempts and made only eight. Cade Cunningham, playing only his second game since missing five with a hip injury, was dogged by foul trouble that likely combined with his layoff to mess with his timing. Cunningham shot 5 of 16 and missed all five of his 3-point tries.

The bench was a problem, too. With Bagley’s assimilation in its infancy, Kelly Olynyk still off his form since returning from a prolonged absence and the Pistons missing Frank Jackson with back spasms, the second unit had a serious lack of punch. It cost the Pistons in the first half when they managed only four points in nearly five minutes and prompted Casey to rejigger the rotation in the second half.

But there’s only so much you can do when there’s not the perimeter shooting or scoring power available. The bench unit wound up scoring just 24 points and, most glaringly, taking only three 3-point shots and not making one. Olynyk, Killian Hayes, Hamidou Diallo and Bagley are all shooting less than 30 percent from the arc for the season. Jackson is the only player off the bench who shoots threes often and well enough to bend defenses.

“Just the 3-point shooting he brings to the table,” Casey said. “The spacing he brings because of the respect they have for him.”

More than the 3-point shooting or lack of scoring, though, Casey most lamented the 37 points the Pistons allowed in the third quarter when Washington got 17 points from Kyle Kuzma, who finished with 23.

“It was our defense with Kuzma that got away from us in the third quarter,” he said. “Some of it was our 3-point shooting, but most of it was our approach and taking it personally when somebody’s lighting us up like that. Too many times we let guys get away instead of putting my stake in the ground: ‘No more.’ ”

The Pistons play one more game – at Boston on Wednesday – before taking a week off for the All-Star break, then they’ll come back and play 24 games in 46 days to finish the regular season. Nothing will be more important over that time than fully integrating Bagley to allow a full evaluation of him ahead of a critical free agency decision on the 22-year-old.

“It’s an experiment to see where he fits,” Casey said. “He fits with both groups. He can play the four. He’s very flexible, very versatile in the positions he can play. I like the way he came in and contributed.”

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Bagley flashes hints of how he’ll help transform Pistons

It’s called the Chase Center because a large commercial bank paid a reported $300 million over 20 years to slap its name on the new home of the Golden State Warriors. Not really because the Pistons, like so many other visitors, spend most games in a futile chase of the NBA juggernaut.

In the opener of a four-game road trip, the Pistons made that chase impossible when they gave away too many possessions in the first half on their way to a 28-point halftime deficit. Eight second-quarter turnovers and nine first-half Golden State offensive rebounds is a lot of extra possessions for an offense that doesn’t need the help.

“Once they started seeing shots go in from the 3-point line, they started to get going,” Isaiah Stewart said. “I felt like in the second half, we did a better job knowing who was coming off pin-downs and off screens and doing a better job defensively. If we would’ve done that in the first half, it would’ve been a different game.”

The Warriors flirted with the NBA’s best record for nearly three months – and then welcomed Klay Thompson back after a 2½ -year absence off of knee and Achilles injuries. Thompson led Golden State with 21 points in 22 minutes on Tuesday. The Warriors played one superb half of offense, scoring 66 in their dominant first half, and two equally impressive halves defensively.

It’s that No. 1-rated Golden State defense, overshadowed by Steph Curry and the offensive wizardry that was at the heart of the three NBA titles with the Curry-Thompson-Draymond Green nucleus, that goes unheralded but has the Warriors in the hunt for a fourth championship. Green missed Tuesday’s game with a back injury but Golden State forced the Pistons into hurried or contested shots consistently anyway. At one point midway through the third quarter, the Pistons were 2 of 18 from the 3-point arc. They finished shooting 35 percent overall and 27 percent from three.

“They’re a very physical team,” Dwane Casey said. “You don’t think of Golden State as a physical team, but they are. They screen hard, they cut hard, they push off.”

Stewart managed his fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds while hitting 7 of 10 shots. Rodney McGruder, the veteran playing his first game with the Pistons since returning from Denver following the rescinded trade for Bol Bol, also hit 7 of 10 shots – 4 of 7 from three – to lead the Pistons with a season-high 19 points.

“Pro,” Casey said of McGruder. “He’s a pro. For him to come out and compete after being traded, stuck in Denver, not knowing what’s going to happen. I appreciate that. I know our organization appreciates his effort and how he approaches the game. This last part of the season is about figuring out the core – who is going to be here, who’s going to be a big part of our future. Rodney is setting the tone of being one of those vets you’ve got to have and tonight is a great example of it.”

“Being a pro’s pro, you have to have a stable foundation to lean on when things don’t go the way you want them to,” McGruder said of weathering the turbulence of the past 10 days. “My faith and what I depend on, that’s what allows me to be a pro.”

Bol reportedly failed his Pistons physical and it was reported on Tuesday that he would undergo surgery on his right foot and miss the next eight to 12 weeks. He was then reportedly traded to Boston as part of a three-way deal with Denver and San Antonio that helps Boston pare its luxury tax bill and sends shooter Bryn Forbes to the Nuggets to give Denver the minutes it had in mind for McGruder.

“It’s great to see him go out and ball,” Stewart said of getting the player he calls “my vet” back. “I’m sure it felt great for him. He’s an example of that true professional, coming in and just doing his job. That’s exactly what he did tonight.”

Stewart and McGruder aside, there weren’t a lot of bright spots for the Pistons on a night that saw them lose Killian Hayes to a right hip contusion after a second-quarter tumble. Casey said he’s unsure how the injury, which Hayes tested at halftime but couldn’t get to loosen up, will affect Hayes for the rest of the trip.

Take away Stewart and McGruder’s combined 14 buckets in 20 attempts and the rest of the team shot 16 of 65 or a shade under 25 percent. The Pistons outscored Golden State 48-36 in the second half and Casey at least liked the competitiveness and attention to detail on the defensive end that was missing in the first half.

“I was happy with our second half,” Casey said. “It was a great lesson against a championship-caliber team – how you have to come out ready to play offense and defense at that speed and with that physicality.”

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McGruder, Stewart stand out as Pistons fall to Warriors

Three quick observations from Sunday night’s 110-106 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center

ROUGH ROAD – The season hit the unofficial quarter pole with the Pistons on pace for a 16-win season, but that doesn’t take into account the degree of difficulty they’ve faced in scheduling so far. The Pistons went into Sunday’s loss to the Lakers at Staples Center 0-12 against teams with winning records this season but a winning record themselves, 4-3, against teams under .500. They were even with the Lakers, 10-11 at tipoff, until near the midway point of the third quarter when turnovers helped fuel a 16-0 Los Angeles run that fed an eventual 19-point lead. The Pistons committed six of their 17 turnovers in the third quarter – they didn’t commit any after turning it over on the first possession of the fourth quarter – that the Lakers converted into 12 points as they shot 14 of 21 during the quarter. The Pistons cut their deficit to six midway through the fourth quarter and again with two minutes left on a Frank Jackson triple, but couldn’t get it below six until Jerami Grant’s two free throws with 17 seconds left made it 108-104. Cade Cunningham (15 points, 11 rebounds) committed five Pistons turnovers and Grant was charged with four in an otherwise brilliant game in which he scored 32 points, grabbed six rebounds and distributed four assists. Trey Lyles, who’d averaged 16 points and six rebounds over the past two games, again gave the Pistons a big boost off the bench, hitting 5 of 7 shots in scoring 13 points to go with seven boards in 17 minutes. Frank Jackson added 17 points and five assists off the bench and Hamidou Diallo 10 points. The bench combined for 42 points.

HAYES RETURNS – Killian Hayes, who missed the past four games and five total with a left thumb injury since initially incurring it earlier this month, was back in the starting lineup on game three of the season’s longest road trip. Hayes finished with six points, eight assists and just one turnover in nearly 29 minutes. Hayes scored on his first move of the game, getting to the rim and scoring on a layup by surprising DeAndre Jordan with a quick shot to avoid a block. He flashed the defensive ability Dwane Casey lauded before the game – “one of our better on-ball defenders and that’s an area where his growth has really skyrocketed,” Casey said – when, after getting switched on to LeBron James, Hayes forced James into a difficult driving attempt that missed. After one of his three defensive rebounds, Hayes went end to end, got deep into the paint and made a perfect pass to a wide-open Jerami Grant for a 3-point make. With Hayes’ return, second-year guard Saben Lee was out of the rotation after logging 50 of his season total of 93 minutes over the past two games. Lee averaged 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds. 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals in those games.

STAR POWER – The Lakers had to gut their roster to accommodate Russell Westbrook’s salary in the deal that brought him to Los Angeles from Washington over the off-season. It gives Los Angels a top-heavy roster with Westbrook joining LeBron James and Anthony Davis at the expense of the depth a roster with so many veterans on the other side of 30 usually requires to withstand the rigors of an 82-game season. But the three stars are definitely capable of carrying the Lakers on any given night, no matter what other contributions they might get. The big three combined for 82 points in Sunday’s win, including 61 of 72 points when the decisive 16-0 run by the Lakers concluded with 4:44 left in the third quarter on a Cade Cunningham basket. James finished with 33 points, five rebounds and nine assists; Westbrook with 25 points, six rebounds and nine assists; and Davis with 24 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Only four other Lakers scored, led by Talen Horton-Tucker’s 12 points.

Dwane Casey

Bagley flashes hints of how he’ll help transform Pistons

McGruder, Stewart stand out as Pistons fall to Warriors

Pistons fight to finish in loss to Lakers