fast breakdown

Keith Langlois

Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 100-92 loss to the Miami Heat at Little Caesars Arena

FOURTH-QUARTER FAILURE – Minus Isaiah Stewart, the Pistons channeled his physical toughness and defensive aptitude in a game that more resembled the NBA of a generation ago – until the fourth quarter, when the Pistons followed one of their best 36-minute stretches of the season with one of their least impressive 12 minutes. The Pistons lost a 15-point lead against the Lakers on Sunday when they were outscored 37-17 in the final quarter; against Miami, it was a 33-16 fourth-quarter count. The Heat outscored the Pistons 27-6 to open the quarter to turn a nine-point deficit into a 12-point lead. The Pistons pulled within six with a minute left but got no closer. Stewart, serving the first of his two-game suspension in the aftermath of Sunday’s dustup with LeBron James and the Lakers, leaves a void for the Pistons, already shorthanded up front with the injury to Kelly Olynyk.  But against the NBA’s No. 4 offense, the Pistons played one of their most complete defensive games of the season – for three quarters. Tyler Herro hit consecutive 3-pointers 18 seconds apart early in the fourth quarter to pull Miami within three points as the Heat outscored the Pistons 18-3 in the first four-plus minutes after being held to 67 points through three quarters. Herro carried Miami’s offense, scoring 11 of the 18 points to open the final quarter, and finished with 30. Offense was often a struggle, no surprise with the Pistons missing two starters – Stewart and Killian Hayes, sitting for at least two games as he recovers from a recurring thumb injury – plus Olynyk, a lynchpin of their second unit. Over the first 12 possessions of the fourth quarter, the Pistons had one basket, two free throws – one on a technical foul – and four turnovers. Jerami Grant led the Pistons with 21 points. The Pistons led virtually all of the first half and by as much as 10 points, holding the Heat to just 3 of 11 from the 3-point arc. They led by 12 in the third quarter. The longest home stand concluded with the Pistons going 1-4 and now starts the season’s longest road trip, five games over nine days that opens Wednesday in Milwaukee and stops next for two games in Los Angeles on the holiday weekend.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS – With two 20-year-old starters missing due to injury (Killian Hayes) or suspension (Isaiah Stewart), the door opened for two other young Pistons, Luka Garza and Saben Lee. Garza drew his first career start – he also took the microphone before player introductions to welcome fans and wish them happy holidays – and played 17 minutes while dodging foul trouble, picking up five. Garza had a terrific stretch in the second quarter when he scored seven straight Pistons points in less than a minute, grabbed contested rebounds at each end and drew a charge on Kyle Lowry. The Pistons would still love to get Garza more time in the G League to become more comfortable with the defensive demands of an NBA big man, but that might have to wait until Kelly Olynyk can return from injury. He finished with seven points, three rebounds and two assists. Lee, who has had two 40-point games in the G League for the Motor City Cruise, got minutes as the lead ballhandler with the second unit with both Cory Joseph and Cade Cunningham out of the game. He didn’t take a shot in seven minutes.

BEY WATCH – Things are trending in the right direction for Saddiq Bey after slumping with his 3-point shooting, the trend across the league as all 30 teams came into Tuesday’s play shooting worse from the arc than last year. Though Bey came into Tuesday’s game at 30.3 percent from the 3-point line this season after hitting 38 percent as a rookie, he’s begun to heat up and start taking triples at a clip more in line with his rookie numbers. Bey got heated up quickly on Tuesday, hitting 3 of 5 from the arc in the game’s first eight minutes, though he missed his last five and finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Over the previous five games, Bey had hit 13 of 33 triples, or 39 percent. He’d taken 48 percent of his shots from the arc, well below the 67 percent of his rookie season but above the rate so far this season.

another-flat-finish-as-pistons-fall-to-heat

Another flat finish as Pistons fall to Heat

Three quick observations from Friday night’s 105-102 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Little Caesars Arena

SUPER POWERS – Isaiah Stewart is built like a superhero and, it turns out, he might just have super powers. After being ruled out of the game minutes after collapsing under the Golden State basket and writhing in pain with a right ankle injury, Stewart – who needed assistance to get to his feet and walk to the locker room – tested the ankle and declared himself ready to go. The Pistons upgraded his status to questionable before the third quarter was out. Stewart returned to the bench, still in uniform, with his ankle wrapped with ice and bandaged around his sneaker, using a rubber exercise band to stretch it out. Though he did not re-enter the game, it was at least a sigh of relief that he suffered no apparent long-term injury. Overnight inflammation could mean Stewart still has to miss some time. Already minus Kelly Olynyk until late December at the earliest, the Pistons would be left with only rookie Luka Garza, the 52nd pick in the July draft, as the roster’s lone true center, if Stewart is unavailable. Dwane Casey has utilized veteran Trey Lyles as Stewart’s primary backup since Olynyk was injured on Nov. 10 at Houston. Olynyk will be re-evaluated in late December. With seven minutes left, Casey went with a lineup with Jerami Grant at center with Saddiq Bey, Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes and Frank Jackson. The Pistons cut what was a 16-point deficit to four inside the final two minutes. Two Jerami Grant free throws with 33 seconds left cut it to three and the Pistons got the ball back with a chance to tie. Two triples – the first by Grant, the second by Jackson – failed to fall as the Pistons finished 14 of 42 from the arc. The Pistons were soundly outrebounded, 48-34, though Golden State’s advantage in second-chance points was only 18-12. The Warriors – missing Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala – got 32 points from Jordan Poole, the third-year guard from Michigan.

BENCH SPOTLIGHT – Golden State was still able to field a starting lineup with punch given the presence of Andrew Wiggins and the emergence of third-year guard Jordan Poole, who helped the Warriors build an early 13-point lead by scoring 11 first-quarter points on 3 of 4 shooting from the 3-point arc. But the absence of Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala meant the Warriors were especially thin on the second unit. That’s where the Pistons held their biggest advantage – on paper, at least – and Frank Jackson led the charge in turning that into reality. His 16 first-half points – a season high – helped the Pistons come back to briefly take the lead in the second quarter. Jackson finished with 27 points, hitting 5 of 11 from the 3-point arc and all six of his free throws. His triple three minutes into the fourth quarter enabled the Pistons to cut Golden State’s lead, 16 after three quarters, to eight. Dwane Casey went just four deep into his bench until Isaiah Stewart’s ankle injury forced Luka Garza into the mix, again using Hamidou Diallo over Josh Jackson as he did in Wednesday’s win over Indiana. Diallo responded with his best game of the season with 10 points and five rebounds in 13 minutes. The Pistons outscored Golden State’s bench, 52-30. Wiggins and Poole combined for 59 points, more than half Golden State’s total.

COLD STORAGE – The three players the Pistons depend on for scoring more than all others, clearly, are Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey and Cade Cunningham. One reason the Pistons have bumped along at or near the bottom of NBA offensive ratings all season – they came into Friday’s game 28th, just ahead of Houston and Oklahoma City – is that the three combined were shooting less than 40 percent overall and less than 30 percent from the 3-point line. Cunningham’s numbers are likely to rise as he gets more comfortable. In fact, after missing his first 18 3-point shots, he’d hit 35.4 percent of his triples before Friday. And Cunningham continued to show he’s growing more comfortable against the Warriors, finishing with 19 points (6 of 12 shooting, 3 of 8 from 3, 4 of 4 free throws) plus six rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots – including a big one on Andrew Wiggins at the rim to give the Pistons the ball back with less than 30 seconds left trailing by three points. But Bey and Grant combined to go 2 of 15 in Friday’s first half, a big reason the Pistons had to play from behind most of the game, and they finished a combined 9 of 30. Bey, who shot 38 percent from the 3-point line as a rookie, came into Friday’s game at just 31.4 percent on 6.1 attempts per game. Grant entered Friday at 30.9 percent on 5.2 attempts per game. Grant shook loose for 10 points in the third quarter, when he hit 4 of 7 shots and 2 of 3 triples. He finished with 19 points, hitting 6 of 17 shots and 3 of 10 triples. Bey scored seven points, hitting 3 of 13 shots and 1 of 6 triples.

2-chances-to-tie-2-misses-pistons-fall-to-warriors

2 chances to tie, 2 misses: Pistons fall to Warriors

Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 117-89 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Little Caesars Arena

GROWING PAINS – It looked like a game Dwane Casey’s young team might steal when the reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks showed up at Little Caesars Arena without a healthy segment of the roster that made the title run possible. No Khris Middleton, no Jrue Holiday, no Brook Lopez. But no matter who’s wearing the other uniform, the Pistons have to shoot the basketball better than they did in the season’s seventh game: 32 percent overall, 17 percent from the 3-point arc, 70 percent from the foul line. They fell down by 18 points at halftime by shooting just 34 percent overall and 22 percent from the 3-point line in a first half in which Jerami Grant scored 14 points and hit 3 of 4 from three while the other four starters – 20-year-olds Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes and Isaiah Stewart plus Saddiq Bey, 22 and in his second season – combined for eight points on 4 of 18 shooting with half the points coming on two Isaiah Stewart layups. The Pistons, with the fewest combined points from their starters among the NBA’s 30 teams, finished with 44 points from their starters, 21 of those coming from Grant in just 24 minutes. Grant hit 4 of 8 from the 3-point line; the rest of the team was 4 of 39. Saddiq Bey missed his first nine shots before scoring at the rim late in the third quarter and finished 2 of 13. Cade Cunningham was 2 of 14.

A LITTLE MORE CADE – Cade Cunningham played 19 minutes in his debut on Saturday and was held out of Sunday’s game at Brooklyn in light of the month missed with an ankle injury, but there were no minutes restrictions on him for his second game. It looks like he’s going to need to stack up a few more of those minutes, though, to overcome the head start he gave the rest of the NBA by missing nearly all of training camp and the preseason plus the first four regular-season games. Cunningham went 1 of 8 from the field and 0 of 5 from the 3-point line in his debut and followed up by shooting 2 of 14 and 0 of 9 from the 3-point line in 29 minutes against Milwaukee. He hit a 17-footer in the first half and scored on a deft floater to open second-half scoring. He got to the foul line for the first time in two games in the fourth quarter with a strong move to draw a foul against Giannis Antetokoumpo, who’d already blocked four shots. Cunningham finished with six points, two rebounds and three assists. When Cunningham re-entered the game early in the second quarter, he did so as the point guard playing alongside Frank Jackson instead of playing off the ball or sharing primary playmaking duties with Killian Hayes, as he did almost exclusively in his debut. Dwane Casey used the same pattern again in he second half, giving Cunningham a few more minutes as the primary playmaker. Cunningham’s passing and playmaking vision were on display a few times, including a behind-the-back pass that was effective more than flashy to find Jerami Grant for an open 3-pointer and a needle-threading pass through the paint to find Isaiah Stewart for a layup that was blocked. He ran a nice pick and roll with Stewart, feeding him for a layup.

NICE FINDS – Troy Weaver had a much quieter second off-season than he did in his whirlwind first as Pistons general manager, but it looks like he got two value signings in free agents Kelly Olynyk and Trey Lyles. Olynyk, coming off a big second half of the season at Houston, doesn’t come as much of a surprise. He came in Tuesday’s game averaging 13.7 points even if he hasn’t come close to his career 3-point mark of .366, hitting at just a .304 clip before going 0 of 2 against the Bucks. Lyles, who was in and out of the rotation in Denver and San Antonio in recent seasons, has flourished to date as backup to Jerami Grant and mainstay of a second unit that came in second to Miami in points per game. He’s the bigger surprise. Lyles came into the game shooting 40 percent from the 3-point arc and even though he went 2 of 8 against the Bucks, Lyles still contributed 13 points and seven rebounds in 18:30 of playing time.

pistons-cant-break-out-of-early-season-scoring-rut-in-loss-to-reigning-champion-bucks

Pistons can’t break out of early-season scoring rut in loss to reigning champion Bucks

Three quick observations from Saturday night’s 110-103 win over the Orlando Magic at Little Caesars Arena

A DANDY DEBUT – Forty years to the day since Isiah Thomas made his Pistons debut, the most ballyhooed Pistons draft pick since, Cade Cunningham, got his feet wet in the first Pistons win of the season. Even if Cunningham was rusty – he shot just 1 of 8 and missed all five of his 3-point attempts – his impact on the offense was evident in the ball movement, spacing and quality of shots the Pistons got while he was on the court, especially in his first-quarter minutes. Dwane Casey moved Cunningham immediately into the starting lineup, influenced by his desire to keep Cunningham paired with Killian Hayes to share playmaking and ballhandling responsibilities. Cunningham’s first NBA points came at 5:10 of the second quarter when he caught Orlando’s defense on the move and sliced through the paint for a left-handed finish to give the Pistons a 37-30 lead. Cunningham played 14 first-half minutes as the Pistons committed 11 turnovers and were just 5 of 22 from the 3-point line. Cunningham played the first five minutes of the third quarter, pushing him to 19 for the game – nearing his limit of 25 Casey stipulated in his pregame press conference – and never returned as the Pistons bench was outstanding in the second half. The Pistons put a 15-0 run together late in the third quarter to take a 12-point lead with Cunningham on the bench. The run reached 28-6 spanning the third and fourth quarters with the Pistons taking a 15-point lead. Cunningham grabbed six rebounds in his first stint, coming out at 3:27 of the first quarter, and picked up two assists, though he was 0 of 5 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point shots.

RIPPLE EFFECTS – With Cade Cunningham debuting and moving into the starting lineup, it not only gave Dwane Casey his envisioned starting lineup but allowed him to have the second unit he imagined, too. And that bench unit was huge for the Pistons in racking up their first win of the season, outscoring Orlando’s bench 59-38. Veterans Kelly Olynyk and Cory Joseph were especially good. Olynyk finished with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists on some dazzling passes. Joseph, who played terrific defense in keying the pressure that led to 18 Orlando turnovers, had 11 points and six assists. Casey needed to drop someone from the second unit’s rotation. Hamidou Diallo was the odd man out. Josh Jackson replaced Cunningham but moved to small forward when Frank Jackson entered the game for Saddiq Bey a few minutes later. Trey Lyles held his spot as the second unit’s four man behind Jerami Grant. Cory Joseph and Kelly Olynyk remained the anchors for that unit. Diallo averaged four points in 13 minutes a game over the first four games. With the Pistons struggling to generate much offense and shooting a league-worst 25.8 percent from the 3-point line, Diallo’s lack of 3-point shooting might have been the factor that led to Casey going with Frank Jackson over Diallo. Casey went with a big lineup for a few possessions late in the second quarter with Isaiah Stewart, Olynyk, Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey and Killian Hayes playing together.

STEWART’S STEPS – When Isaiah Stewart went against Orlando’s Mo Bamba last spring, Bamba’s size – the 7-footer has a reported 7-foot-10 wingspan – was an issue for him. Bamba finished with 22 points and 15 boards as the Magic won 119-112 on May 3. But Bamba didn’t have nearly as much impact this time around, finishing with 10 points and three rebounds in 29 minutes. Both of his 3-pointers came with Stewart out of the game. Stewart played only 21 minutes with Kelly Olynyk playing 29, but Stewart contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and physical defense. Orlando played big in its starting lineup with Bamba and Wendell Carter Jr., but went small on its second unit initially with Michigan rookie Franz Wagner, who started at small forward, and 6-foot-6 Chuma Okeke at the two power positions. When the Pistons held a 27-14 rebounding advantage, Orlando began to use Wagner’s older brother Mo Wagner in a bigger lineup. It was the Wagner brothers who caused the Pistons the most trouble. Franz, the No. 8 pick in the July draft, scored a season-high 19 points. Mo finished with 13 and hit 4 of 6 triples. They combined for 19 points in the third quarter.

fast breakdown

Another flat finish as Pistons fall to Heat

2 chances to tie, 2 misses: Pistons fall to Warriors

Pistons can’t break out of early-season scoring rut in loss to reigning champion Bucks

Pistons pull away to get season’s first win in Cade Cunningham’s debut