Game Recap/Notes: Game #25. Pistons 112 - Grizzlies 122. (6-19
Wierd game. The Pistons got down early and to their credit they never let the Grizzlies pull away into laugher territory but they also never got close enough to where you really felt like the game was in the balance. In the end though, that isn’t a terrible effort from Detroit.
Killian Hayes:
He didn’t follow up his career night with a great outing but he was still okay. In 29 minutes Hayes had 13 points on as many shot attempts (including 3-5 from deep) to go with 6 assists. He also played good defense on Ja Morant for most of the night, 21 of Morant’s 33 points came in the 3rd quarter and most of those points were after Hayes had hit the bench which was a predictable outcome. Obviously as much as we would all love for him to have another awesome game, it is important that his down games look more like this. Where it isn’t great, but not a disaster.
Jaden Ivey:
Started off the game pretty well. Finding some transition opportunities and making good passes, but ended the game poorly. Had several bad turnovers and misses in the 4th quarter and finished with just 10 points on 2-9 shooting, buoyed only by 5-6 from the line. The low number of shot attempts is the thing that perhaps stands out the most. Maybe he still isn’t quite feeling 100% yet but with Cade out he can’t have 9 field goals and 3 assists. Even if he struggles, he needs to be trying to do more.
Bojan Bogdanovic:
Continues to be a bedrock offensively. 18 points on 4-8 shooting along with 808 from the line. Didn’t do a whole lot outside of score effectively which is indicated by his game-worst -29 on the night. At this point I think we are starting to get a pretty good feel for what Bojan is. He snipes from deep, can put it on the floor and score for himself, doesn’t really set up teammates and is very “meh” defensively.
Marvin Bagley:
Only played 21 minutes, I don’t think he got hurt unless I just missed that. Had 8 points on 4-9 shooting. Didn’t make much impact on the game. There was one Morant play where Morant was fouled and just sort of tossed the ball at the backboard so it would be a shooting foul and for some reason Bagley decided to block it well after it had hit the backboard. Seemed like there was little chance the ball was going in and it had clearly hit the backboard, just a low IQ play.
Isaiah Stewart:
8 points on 7 shots, went 2-5 from deep, didn’t impact the game much in other ways. Defenses are occasionally starting to defend him when he doesn’t have the ball which is nice, will be interesting to see how his game adjusts from there.
Saddiq Bey:
Big night off the bench, primarily by drawing hella free throws. 24 points on 7-16 shooting while going 9-12 from the line (good for 22-shot equivalents) but remained ice-cold from deep as he went 1-6. Somehow ended up with 7 assists as well which I’m going to pretty much chalk up to luck. Obviously, these are the sorts of games that suggest that Bey could work out as some sort of 6th man but I am doubtful it is a good role for him. Time will tell.
Kevin Knox:
Continues to show some signs of life, he still isn’t very good but 6 points on 4 shots (1-2 from deep) in 12 minutes is a decent outing.
Jalen Duren:
Only played 15 minutes, had a huge block of JJJ and made a couple of nice passes. Minimal impact in the end though.
Corey Joseph:
Did a couple of positive things in his first stint but was largely at fault for Ja Morant going off in the 3rd quarter but that isn’t really something you can fault CoJo for because if you are expecting him to guard Morant that is a coaching/rotational issue more than a Corey Joseph issue.
Alec Burks:
7 points on 8 shots, played 19 minutes. Remains a positive offensive impact off of the bench.
Hamidou Diallo:
Got in for some run in the 2nd half and played well. 10 points on 4-6 shooting in just 12 minutes, and while if he’s out of the rotation in the long-run it is his own fault for never engaging defensively or learning to pass/shoot but I do think he provides some real value to the bench unit.
Not a fun game to watch other than Marveling at Morant’s abilities. Grizzlies seemed to jump out to a lead and then largely put it in cruise.
I think Chalking up the assists for Bey up to luck is a little unfair, I know it's not the norm for him but he genuinely had a few good passes, there was I think 2(3?) instances where he created some dribble penetration and kicked out to Bogdan in the corner(who was being shadowed by Brooks pretty heavily). This is kind of a nice pass to see from him, and feels like it shows he is a little more in control on those drives then he looks sometimes. I think he also slipped 2 very nice passes to Diallo(I think?) that led to a pair of dunks(one on a cut and the other through the middle of the defense).
Those were good aware passes, not saying we should count on that, but he did some real work out there, calling them Lucky feels real reductive to the game he had.