Game Recap/Notes: Game #6. Pistons 116 - Pelicans 125. (2-6)
Another tough game. Some credit to the Pistons for fighting back to avoid it being a total blowout but they never really made it that close plus the Pelicans were without 2 of their 3 best players.
Cade Cunningham:
Another day but same story. 22 points but on 8-22 shooting (and 4-5 from the line) and 11 assists against 6 turnovers. I will continue to emphasize that you cannot decouple Cade’s inefficiencies from the fact that they are putting him on the floor with horrible offensive lineups for so much of his game time, but he still needs to tighten things up. Some of his turnovers are a direct result of trying to make plays while having no spacing, but some of them remain plain old laziness. He deserves to go to the line more and deserves to play with more spacing (and we even saw a short stretch tonight where he had spacing and it went very well!) but he needs to work on himself as well.
Killian Hayes:
A better night. 10 points on 4-8 shooting from the field including 2-4 from deep along with 9 assists without a turnover. As a capper, he drew the CJ McCollum assignment for much of the second half and was really the only Pistons defender to bother him at all. People still need to guard him but this is the type of game that could have Killian sticking at the top end of the rotation long-term. Defense, facilitation, and just enough shooting to get by.
Ausar Thompson:
The final stat-line ended up being alright. 16 points on 5-17 shooting from the field (6-7 from the line) along with 7 boards (5 offensive!) and 5 assists in 25 minutes of work is the sort of line we expect from Thompson, but the flip side is that this was a rough game that you had to watch. For an extended stretch in the 1st half the Pelicans went into a zone and simply chose to not guard Thompson at all, Thompson responded by shooting a bunch and it went almost comically bad and finished 0-6 from deep. So while it is a credit that he stayed aggressive until he found some good transition opportunities in the 2nd half to salvage something from the night, the combination of his missed shots and his defender being allowed to play free safety is one of the biggest reasons the Pistons fell into such a big hole in the first half.
Ausar is a player for whom its good to remember that two things can be true at once.
Ausar has shown tons of good stuff in many aspects of the game and is a guy that we should all be exceptionally excited about.
Ausar might end up not being ready offensively to be a starter/heavy minutes guy as a rookie.
I’m on board with giving him more time, and if he starts to hit shots things will open up in a hurry, but its something to think about. Because for all that I complain about Stew and Killian, right now Thompson is the most culpable teammate in the double teams thrown at Cade Cunningham.
Isaiah Stewart:
Another similar outing for Stew. 11 points on 3-7 shooting along with 8 boards isn’t a horrible night on the surface, but as painful as it was to watch Ausar Thompson repeatedly fail to beat the zone, at least he tried. Stew remains too hesitant and passive when the defense shows even the slightest interest in defending him. He did have some decent defensive moments in the second half when he got put at center, but on the whole, it just wasn’t an impactful night for Stew and one more that hammered home how important it is for him to be aggressive. When teams leave him open he has to make them pay or die trying.
Jalen Duren:
For my own narrative purposes, I will choose to believe that he wasn’t 100% healthy yet. It wasn’t an awful outing but 12 points and 5 boards in 25 minutes isn’t great. After McCollum caught fire the Pistons asked Duren to be less conservative in his defensive coverages and he struggled to do so which more or less confirms that he didn’t shake his issues with defending in space from last season. On the plus side, he did outright beat Valanciunas with dribble-drive moves twice which was pretty eye-opening. The bad news here though is that other teams will see how much his impact was negated by making him leave the paint and they will try to do more of the same, he proved he’s good enough to force adjustments, now its time to sink or swim.
Marcus Sasser:
One of the only guys who played a clearly positive game. In 23 minutes he scored 19 points on 6-10 shooting from the field with 3 assists. He was proof of how important simply getting up shots when you’re open is. The Pelicans defense collapsed onto ball-handlers multiple times and Sasser was more than happy to gun away when he was open. His size continues to limit his defensive impact but this guy is a real player.
Jaden Ivey:
I’m going to just put aside the absurdity of how little he’s playing and being featured for now. Positive night for Ivey, 12 points on 4-6 shooting with 7 boards. Didn’t record an assist and had a couple of rough possessions when Herb Jones guarded him, but he was part of the spark that got the Pistons back within striking distance before he was pulled. Also thought he mostly played good defense against CJ McCollum but was victimized by McCollum making tough shots. He deserves to play more.
Joe Harris:
Seeing some extra minutes as Monty tried to inject shooting to beat the zone and he did fine. 8 points on 3-8 shooting, mediocre defense. Did what can be expected.
Marvin Bagley:
First real negative performance of the season. 6 points on 3-7 shooting, 9 boards in 13 minutes is nice but generally failed to impact the game.
General:
I am not on board with all of Monty’s rotation decisions (even aside the Ivey situation) but I will give him credit for trying different things. He threw several lineup combinations on the floor we haven’t really seen this year trying to find a group that worked and that was refreshing to see. As much as anything this game is another good reality check, even without their two best players the Pelicans are simply a much better team than the Pistons are.