Game Recap/Notes: Game #11. Pistons 78 - Cavs 98. (2-9)
This is going to be a quicky because this game was boring and there’s another tonight.
Killian Hayes:
Offensively was meh. 5 points on 9 shots with 6 boards and 5 assists. On the other side of the ball he continues to really look like a genuine stalwart. He hounded whoever he guarded all game and finished with 6(!!) steals on the night. His length and effort on the defensive end are a great combination and he seems to be putting some solid instincts for it into practice as well. Killian obviously needs to find more offense, in the long run, to really stick, and he has a long ways to go on that side, but it is encouraging to see him putting it together defensively.
Cade Cunningham:
Started pretty well, but I think (purely off the top of my head) that he didn’t score or do a whole lot in the second half. Finished with 9 points on 8 shots, got another three ball to fall, 6 boards and 3 assists. Struggled to find rythmn in the game.
Saddiq Bey:
Oh boy. 4 points on 13 equivalents, 0-5 from deep. I still think Bey will find his shot at some point but this is bad enough that it can’t simply be passed off as a slump. He’s now down to 26% on the season on huge volume and, predictably, the flashes of good shot creation out of the gate has largely gone away. I’m not sure what the answer here is, but something is off with him.
Jerami Grant:
Pretty much the lone offensive bright spot with 16 points on 14 shot equivalents but was not impactful other than that. No real facilitation, couldn’t do much to stabilize the Pistons defense.
Isaiah Stewart:
Tough outing. Got into foul trouble early which is bad given the lack of other centers on the roster, and had a rough go of it the rest of the game. Only scored 2 points on 5 shots, did have 7 rebounds. Just a game where his lack of size and elite athleticism kind of stood out as the Cavs spent much of the first 3 quarters having an alley-oop fest. Worth mentioning on that note that most of the oop-fest was when Stewart was out (we will get to Garza soon) but he didn’t exactly stop the bleeding which was shown by his team-worst -18 on the day.
Cory Joseph:
Did fine I guess. 7 points on 4 shot equivalents. I’d way rather see Lee get these minutes still and it remains pretty comical that the Pistons gave this guy real money (7.3 mill this year and a PLAYER OPTION for 5.1 mill next year) but I guess he was fine tonight. Like I just can’t get over that money man. I get wanting to have a veteran presence, but you pay vet minimum for veteran presence, not $12million over 2 years. It looks even dumber now that Saban Lee looks like he 100% deserves those minutes anyways.
Trey Lyles:
Continues to trend down after a nice start. 2 points and 2 rebounds on the night. Although I’m not going to be too hard on him for being an anchor on defense when asked to play center because in no universe is Lyles ideally playing center.
Luka Garza:
Not fair to say he got exposed on defense because it isn’t like anyone is surprised to see him be bad on that end, but it was pretty obvious he couldn’t keep up on that end. He did get 5 points on 4 shots and a pair of assists on offense. Long-term I lean towards his defense just being to bad to be an NBA player, but there is enough offense, especially if he can prove to be a high level shooter, that he may work as a 3rd big for specific matchups. I hope the Pistons ditch the Lyles at center crap and just play him, if it goes poorly (which I think it probably will) who cares, at least we know.
Frank Jackson:
Hit some more shots which was good to see. 5 points on 4 shots.
Josh Jackson:
Energy and slashing. 11 points on 10 shots and he continues his run of doing some awesome things but also some bad things.
General:
Just a tough game. Guys missed shots, but also got shellacked on the other end. Don’t let the 98 points for Cleveland fool you, until garbage time the Cavs were mostly getting whatever they wanted and ran a bunch in transition. It looked like the Pistons were on the second night of a back to back except that they were on the first night of one. Honestly might’ve been one of the worst performances of the season for Detroit in my book.