It’s tough to be a Pistons fan but even tougher for the team themselves. After playing their best basketball in their current form by knocking off the Pacers and coming back on the road to beat the Celtics, the Pistons gave up a 20 point lead at home to lose to the Bobcats by 10. The Bobcats Kemba Walker scored a season-high 34 points to help Charlotte outscored the Pistons 41-17 in the fourth quarter to top Detroit 116-106.
Key Points:
- How does a team get outscored 41-17 in the fourth quarter at home when they’re up by 20?
- The Pistons looked like they never played basketball together before the fourth quarter. Detroit shot just 6-for-20, while showing little or no defense.
- Bright spot was Andre Drummond who added another double-double with 14 points, 15 boards all while throwing a block party (5).
- Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings combined to take 40 shots for Detroit.
- Smith was 8-of-20 for 18 points, with three assists, six boards, three steals, and two blocked shots. He’s clearly not going to put up 30 a night, but his defense is something the Pistons have been lacking for years.
- Jennings led the Pistons with 26 on 10-of-20 shooting with five assists a blocked shot, a steal and no turnovers. Brandon Jennings has been showing signs of changing his game to help the team.
- Recap via NBA.com
- Josh Harrellson has been a welcome surprise to this team. Not only does he do a heck of a job for Dre, he’s a big man who can knock down the three. Josh was 2-of-3 from downtown for 12 points with two blocked shots in 17 minutes.
- Bless Billups, but he really has been a shell of himself this season.
- Bynum needs to dust off more rust.
- Caldwell-Pope took just two shots in 22 minutes on the floor.
- Monroe with 13 points, nine boards and four turnovers. I love Moose, but I cringe at times when he just fumbles the ball away.
Andre Drummond: “We’ve got to stick with what we do, we tend to get relaxed in the fourth quarter when we get a lead and we gave it away. That’s really what it comes down to. We gave away the game tonight. It’s tough to swallow, but we’ve got to move forward.” Via Pistons.com
- Move forward they better with Houston at the Palace Saturday night.
Disappointing loss at home to a team that they should beat.
Detroit really missed Stuckey.
Bynum and Billups are just not good enough offensively or defensively. They should be the 4th or 5th option only at the guard depth chart.
On the positive side, the starters were decent. Also decent game by Jorts and Buckets off the bench.
Stuckey may be as valuable to the success of this Piston team as any player on their roster right now, in my opinion.
It is time to start another winning streak again.
GO PISTONS!
Can’t believe I’m missing Stuckey.