Game Recap/Notes: Game #10. Pistons 106 - Sixers 114. (2-8)
The 3rd quarter was brutal, tough to see a game where the Pistons get out to such a nice start only to completely fall apart later on. Of course part of the good start was them employing the old “what if we just hit every shot we take?” strategy but still. The Pistons looked as though they were sleepwalking coming out of half-time. Would also be nice if someone in the Pistons ownership group could start trying to bribe refs because the free-throw thing is getting absurd, the Sixers shot 41 free-throws to the Pistons 22.
Cade Cunningham:
Cade should probably just start coming out to Aerosmith at this point. 21 points on 8-18 shooting along with 4-4 at the line (so 21 points on 20 shot equivalents) along with 7 assists but against 4 turnovers and committing 5 fouls on the night. Toss in 1-5 from deep and Cade has officially cratered from his hot shooting start to the season.
Once again, it is hard to say Cade played poorly. He has a huge burden in the offense, gets very little help, and provides some excellent shot-making to keep the Pistons in the game at times. But he also continues to not be good enough. The good news at least is that he’s found better consistency inside of the arc and getting the the hoop a bit more, so if he can re-find him three-point shot his production will look far better.
Killian Hayes:
THE BELIEF O’ METER IS RISING
23 points on 8-17 shooting from the field and 5-7 at the line along with 5 boards and 6 assists against 2 turnovers, toss in a couple of steals on the defensive end for good measure. Killian hit a number of tough jumpers on offense and continues to be just about the only player who isn’t turning the ball over constantly. The defensive effort continues to stay at a high level even as he’s found some offensive production the past few games, and get also still doesn’t feel like he’s forcing it despite taking more shots than he was in the opening few games. It is worth remembering that we have seen stretches where Hayes has looked very good only for him to fall right back off so its perfectly reasonable to remain skeptical, but he’s been rock-solid for the last handful of games.
Ausar Thompson:
Solid night for Ausar, 12 points on 6-11 from the field along with 13(!!) rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks in 32 minutes of play. He continues to be an absolute stat-stuffer who wants to steal every pass and block every shot. The thing that continues to stand out with consistency, on both ends of the floor, is his rare combination of athleticism and hoops IQ. The quick decisions, decisions that are so often correct, are so rare for young players these days, especially American players, are a boon for the team. Despite constantly going for ambitious defensive plays he doesn’t feel like he gambles recklessly, despite being a rookie who’s probably a bit over his head as a creator he doesn’t toss a ton of awful turnovers. He’s going to need to hit some threes at some point (just 0-1 tonight) because defenses don’t want to guard him but he’s brilliant.
Isaiah Stewart:
In 32 minutes Stew scored 10 points on 4-10 shooting with 6 boards and 2 assists along with 3 turnovers and committing 5 fouls. For a short stretch in the second half, he seemed like he was coming alive but it was short-lived. Just not a good game from Stew. He spent most of the game locked out of the offense and while I’m not going to be too hard on him for struggling when asked to defend Embiid, there were several bad defensive mistakes which is obviously uncharacteristic for him but still.
Jalen Duren:
Only played 23 minutes before being pulled from the game because his ankle is apparently not ready yet and he was not very good in the minutes he did play. Just 4 points on 2-5 shooting and 4 boards. He continues to show real passing instinct but other than that he just wasn’t very good. I’m obviously not a doctor but at this point, it really does feel like they should just shut him down for a week so he can get healthy. He hasn’t looked good since hurting his ankle initially so even if there’s no extra health risk to him playing through it it certainly isn’t helping much. Also despite not being a doctor, I can’t think of any ankle injury, whether suffered by myself or anyone else, that wasn’t pretty much prescribed rest. So unless someone who actually knows would want to refute this point, I highly doubt that it is a “oh you can just play through it without any risk” type of injury because I’ve always felt like ankles are basically the exact opposite.
On a somewhat related note, it is pretty frustrating that the Pistons feel like they are essentially dead in the water if their 20-year-old 2nd-year center takes a week or two off to get healthy when you consider the sheer amount of resources this franchise has invested into the center position over the last few years.
Marcus Sasser:
35 minutes and we got the regression that was always coming. 9 points on 3-13 shooting from the field and 1-7 from deep to go along with 4 assists. Sasser was shooting nearly 60% from deep a week ago, now he’s down to 44%, which is still an exceptional number of course but that’s a hard regression. Now we just have to hope that he doesn’t regress too much further.
Stanley Umude:
Got 17 minutes of run and scored 10 points by going 7-8 at the line. No I’m not totally sure how that happened either but hey we will take it.
Marvin Bagley:
In 13 minutes he scored 6 points on 3-4 shooting and had 5 boards. Was perfectly acceptable even if he clearly stood very little chance when he was matched up with Embiid.
James Wiseman:
Went 3-3 from the field in his 7 minutes with 4 boards so that was good. I guess.
Jared Rhoden:
7 minutes on the floor, 2-3 from the field for 5 points. Both Rhoden and Umude continue to look like they belong on an NBA court which continues to be nice to see. Obviously, the Pistons missing this number of players will always be even when (if) the Pistons get healthy we can take some comfort in that if either of these two needs to step in they probably won’t blow it.