Game Recap/Notes: Game #1. Pistons 109 - Pacers 115. (0-1)
Defensive meltdown late costs the Pistons
It's a tough way to lose. The Pistons felt like the better team most of the night but simply fell apart at the end, too many bad mistakes. And yet, hard not to come out of tonight with at least a semblance of positive vibes, a team that was historically great offensively last year spent almost all night stuck in second gear, Cade had a big game, good contributions from other places as well. Admittedly my degree of positivity does come from an expectation that I’ll be pleased if the Pistons are even a mediocre team this year (instead of abjectly awful) and I think they looked very mediocre tonight, in the most positive way.
Cade Cunningham:
Had the Pistons held on to win this game he would’ve received the honors for sure, but alas. Still what we want to see from the Pistons’ best player. Cunningham finished with 28 points on 10-23 shooting along with 5 boards and 8 assists. Only 3 turnovers against is a nice help as well. The only real downside is that he struggled down the stretch, in a moment where the Pistons really needed him to stop the bleeding he wasn’t able too, which is ultimately how the game slipped away. On the other hand, he was far from the only guy not doing enough at the end of the game.
In the preview I said that Cade needs to take “THE LEAP” this season, the opener wasn’t a perfect outing but pretty much in line with what we need to see. An 18 point 3rd quarter where he did it in every way, with drives to the hoop, mid-rangers, and deep balls. Dude is the complete package on offense, just need a few more shots to fall.
Jaden Ivey:
Continued the positive play of the preseason with a 17-point, 5 rebound, 3 assist outing in 31 minutes of play. He didn’t hit a 3-pointer but he did get to the line for 9 free-throws which is an excellent sign of how aggressive he was.
The pairing with Cade did at times look a bit awkward, in the closing stretch there was one possession where Ivey walked into a mid-range jumper early in the shot clock where Cade didn’t even touch the ball still stand out, but those moments stood out more because it looked fine most of the time. Ivey was staggered from Cunningham a bit, but not too aggressively. There were a couple of poor decisions on the night, including ending up with 3 fouls in the first half, but the eye test for Ivey tonight was highly positive.
He looked to attack with consistency, found several nice passes out of drives, didn’t turn the ball over, rarely felt like a black-hole or out of sync with the offense, and for a couple of stretches you felt the upside of the yin-yang contrast of styles between him and Cade with Cade being the slower, steadier half-court player and Ivey the ball of energy and aggression constantly crashing the hoop. I also enjoyed that the coaching staff appears to have given him a clear green light to go for offensive rebounds which would be a fun wrinkle to his game.
Tim Hardaway Jr:
Tim Hardaway gave us a pretty clear vision of what to expect this season. 14 points on 4-9 shooting (4-7 of which were from deep) with an almost empty box score otherwise is pretty much the player he is. He spaced the floor, mostly tried on defense, and generally did his best to stay out of the way other than the brief amount of time it takes him to raise the ball to shoot. And that’s perfectly fine, the Pistons were in desperate need of shooting and Hardaway brings it in spades, also worth noting that while the other areas of his game are lacking, they are not total duds. No one will pretend he’s a plus defender but he isn’t single-handedly drowning your whole team on that end, he isn’t a good passer but it isn’t like he’s a black-hole who doesn’t know how to play in a real offense. The other stuff is just good enough.
Tobias Harris:
We will hope for a little higher volume as Tobias returns to Detroit with just 13 points on 6-13 shooting, but the eye test showed how valuable Harris is to the Pistons. His quiet consistency was often undervalued by a Sixers fanbase that couldn’t look past his contract, and even though he was in over his head having to spend the whole night with difficult defensive assignments, given he’s as close as this starting lineup has to a legit wing defender, but he still managed to tread water mostly. Neither Harris nor Hardaway are the quality of players that they will carry the Pistons to contention or anything but both players (tho especially Harris) very obviously will do wonders for the Pistons just by virtue of being viable NBA players.
Jalen Duren:
In 30 minutes of play, Duren scored 13 points on 4-4 shooting (5-6 from the line as well!) and pulled in 13 rebounds along with 4 assists. On the offensive end he was absolutely rampant and revived a relic of the Andre Drummond days by reminding everyone that as good as Myles Turner is, he isn’t exactly a monster on the boards. Unfortunately, Duren couldn’t help but also play some of Drummond’s other hits, most notably “Being totally incapable of playing effective defense against stretch 5s” because at the start of the second half when the Pacers started giving the ball to Turner for 3s his defense completely evaporated which contributed heavily to him finishing with a game-low -16 on the night.
The problem was not just that Turner hit several shots in a row, a huge part of an initial burst to start the second half for Indiana, it almost feels like once the variable of covering a shooter part of the equation, Duren loses his ability to process other parts of his defensive responsibilities as well, which is also frustratingly Drummond like. The inability to ever walk the correct line between “I can’t allow a wide-open 3 but also can’t allow a wide-open layup” has been a consistent problem for Duren and as good as many parts of tonight were (he really might be a difference maker on offense), its hard to see a world where this version of the Pistons amounts to much without Duren being a solid defensive anchor. Perhaps that is too much to ask of a 20 year old, but if he continues to show no signs of defensive progress it would be pretty deflating.
Just to avoid seeming too down on Duren I will re-iterate that he was absolutely rampant on offense and is going to cause serious headaches for a number of teams this season.
Malik Beasley:
In my preview I aired concerns about how bench units will generate offense, suggesting that while Malik Beasley heat-checks are not a bad option, they can’t be the only one. Tonight was a good example of that. In the first half, the Pistons bench held serve largely on the back of a few jumpers by Beasley, in the second half those jumpers dried up and he finished with 14 points on 5-13 shooting from the field. And to be clear, that’s just fine for Beasley, but it does showcase just how badly the Pistons will likely miss having a legit creator off the bench. Regardless, Beasley was fine tonight, and there will be nights he’s so hot he carries the bench on his own.
Isaiah Stewart:
Off the bench, appeared to me that he was only ever at the 5 spot, had a couple of decent defensive moments but overall this game was an excellent reminder of how absurd it was that the previous regime tried to make him a starting 4. In 17 minutes Stewart scored 2 points and grabbed 4 rebounds. His toughness was appreciated, and despite his limitations he’s also clearly more stable defensively than Duren is (which, once again, is something we need to change) which counts for something, but 17 minutes for him even felt like a bit much. He did finish +5 on the night though which counts for something.
Marcus Sasser:
Only played 3 minutes and hit a single 2-pointer but I am sneaking it in here to point out that in his 3 minutes, the Pistons went +9 (largely due to those aforementioned Beasley jumpers). Just to put Stewarts +5 into some context.
Simone Fontecchio:
Really bad night (even though he finished +3). 0-4 from the field, 3 fouls, and a turnover in just 15 minutes is nasty work. The only positive stat he recorded was a single rebound and I think he took a charge as well. Most nights he will hit some shots and it will be fine but this was one to forget.
Ron Holland:
The full experience. On one hand, he was a savage defensively on several possessions in the best way possible, had a couple of positive offensive plays, and showed the balls-to-the-walls effort and hustle that you love to see out of a young player with the athletic profile of Holland.
On the other hand, he blew a fast-break in truly astounding fashion, totally missed a few defensive rotations, and was also caught as a 6th man on the floor late in the game.
The best thing to say for Holland is that he certainly checks one of the boxes I always have for young guys that are maybe raw but super athletic. We can live with the mistakes if the mistakes are made at full speed, he’s always going full speed.
General:
The mere fact that this game felt like something of a slog for the vast majority, the exact opposite type of game Indiana wants to play, is probably more testament to positive coaching than the entirety of last year combined which counts for something. I thought rotations and lineups mostly made sense. They might need to get more aggressive in staggaring Cade and Ivey but that would be a roster flaw more than a coaching one. The reality is that anything much over 30 wins would be a success and I feel pretty positive because this looks like a team that could win 30 or so games.