Game Recap/Notes: Game #4. Pistons 98 - Heat 106. (0-4)

The Pistons drop another game

THe line I was most comfortable with going into this game is that this game was a chance for the team to make good on some of the moral victories of the first few games, the Heat don’t suck obviously but are probably a step below the other opponents the Pistons have faced out of the gate. Suffice to say a flop offensively to a fairly comfortable loss isn’t what we were looking for here.

Box Score.

Cade Cunningham:

Not a bad night for Cunningham, 24 points on 9-18 shooting along with 8 boards, and 6 assists (against 5 turnovers isn’t great) is a fine outing, especially on a night where the Pistons as a team shot below 40% from the field. Given the reality that this wasn’t a bad game from Cade and obviously he is pretty far off the radar in terms of “things that are very much not good enough” on this team, and yet I feel like we need to talk about his effort at times.

Maybe this is silly, there are plenty of stars who put in far worse effort than Cade does on a nightly basis, it isn’t like we are making a James-Harden-style montage of him blatantly not playing defense here. But there were a number of possessions where it stood out, at one point later in the game he had the ball stolen from him while dribbling out towards the half-line. Getting your pocket picked like that is bad enough, but he just kinda didn’t even try to get the ball back. He jogged a bit as the Heat sprinted away for a transition opportunity, but not really. The bigger thing is that I was watching Jalen Duren’s defense particularly closely this game, as his defense has been a early talking point, and it’s hard not to notice that the Pistons inability to defend pick and rolls clearly goes beyond Duren and once again, there are simply a number of possessions where Cade simply does not try hard enough.

Maybe this is misplaced, stars need to try and save energy somewhere, but to me, Cade is the best player on a team that is trying to win its first game of the season, make good closeouts and don’t get lazy with the ball.

Jaden Ivey:

Felt like a down-game for Ivey and it was, but if down-games this season end up with 18 points on 6-16 shooting we can live with that. Ivey never got totally involved in the offense the way you would like, finishing with just 1 assist to go with the 18 inefficient points. His defensive issues have been well-documented enough that I don’t think I need to make a whole rant on it here. The key is for this to be an outlier bad performance for Ivey, if that’s the case we can live with it.

Tim Hardaway Jr:

Continues to do what is expected of him. The veteran gunner scored 20 points on 5-10 shooting (3-6 from deep and 7-7 on free throws). He brings very little else to the table, but the Pistons really needed someone to have a positive shooting night tonight and Hardaway brought that.

Tobias Harris:

I don’t want to panic or anything. Tobias has been a consistent offensive producer for years now, but I’m officially a bit worried about the Pistons’ offseason addition. Its obviously just 4 games but after a 9-point, 10 rebound outing (on just 4-11 shooting) Harris is now averaging 10 points per game this season while shooting 34% from the field and 17% from deep. He will find his footing, but it goes beyond the bad shooting. Harris has not seemed to have a clear role in the offense, and maybe he is struggling to operate in an ecosystem so different from the one he spent several years playing in with the Sixers.

Jalen Duren:

10 points and 11 boards on 5-6 shooting in 29 minutes. Toss in a pair of assists and 3 blocks and you’ve got a solid outing for Duren. The defense is still a mess but as mentioned in the Cade section, I feel like tonight at least Duren wasn’t quite as bad and other guys get a bit more blame. Also the Heat scored 106 it isn’t like they torched the Pistons. Solid game for Duren.

Simone Fontecchio:

Could almost copy and paste the Tobias section. Another bad game, 6 points on 2-9 shooting from the field. Just hasn’t found any footing or comfort offensively so far this season, the scary thing is that Simone doesn’t have a decade of evidence he’s better than this, Simone is in just his 3rd NBA season and only one of his previous two had him actually looking like a legit NBA player. I think he will get better, but there would be a certain irony if one of the few Weaver moves most people agreed was good ended up being a flop.

Ron Holland:

Played hard, played fast. 6 points on 3-6 shooting. Still can’t shoot, more accurate to say he can’t do much of anything on offense other than jump very high, but he does jump VERY high. Holland isn’t going to positively impact many games this season, but he is worth playing which is a win for now I think.

Isaiah Stewart:

15 rebounds in just 19 minutes, including 7 offensive! in 19 minutes he was 0-3 from the field and finished -11 on the game.

Malik Beasley:

Never found his footing, in 19 minutes he went 1-12 from the floor (1-7 from deep) and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that he shot them out of this game. A usually plus shooter going 1-12 from the field in a game you lost by 6 stings.

General:

Not really even any moral victories here. This just sucked. I hope the Pistons win soon.