Game Recap/Notes: Game #8. Pistons 109 - Warriors 120. (2-6)
Not that we like moral victories but certainly hard to be upset with the effort tonight at least. On a night where they were very shorthanded against a very good team the Pistons stuck with it to the end and its probably as easy as saying “They have Steph Curry and we do not”
Cade Cunningham:
Another game, with a similar story. 21 points on 7-18 shooting from the field, 6-7 at the line, along with 5 assists against 5 turnovers. Overall a night where he made plenty of good plays, hard to say he was bad, but simultaneously is simply not efficient enough. He isn’t hitting enough shots, and he is turning the ball over at a frankly comical rate. The good news is that the last two games have seen him do far better inside the arc and get to the hoop more, of course, it was combined with him falling off from deep, but the number of free throws is an accurate reflection of how aggressive he was in attacking the hoop.
Killian “Moonboy” Hayes:
Maybe the best game of his career? 21 points on 8-12 shooting from the field, 3-4 from deep, along with 7 assists without a turnover and some excellent defense to boot. Hayes was, comfortably, the Pistons’ best player tonight. He controlled the flow of the game, ran the offense with regularity, took care of the ball, and hounded Warriors players defensively. The full arsenal was truly on display for Killian tonight, and the last two games are a nice reminder that as awful as his scoring/shooting has been (and it has been AWFUL) if he can get it to anything close to serviceable he has all the other tools to be an excellent player.
Ausar Thompson:
A very positive game for Ausar. 16 points on 6-10 shooting from the field (1-4 from deep) along with 7 boards, 2 assists, and 4 steals in 38 minutes of play. He was, less effective than normal on defense due to the number of screens the Warriors toss but he still caused problems as evidenced by the number of steals. He continues to show great promise attacking the hoop and his passing vision seems to genuinely be elite. Every tool is here for Ausar and he continues to play with the confident aggression required to make teams pay for sagging off of him.
Isaiah Stewart:
Great bounce-back game on the whole. I have mentioned in the past couple of recaps that even though the numbers were fine Stewart was struggling, largely because he was not taking the shots the defense was giving him. Even when he was open if a defender was anywhere near he seemed to hesitate. Monty Williams apparently agreed with this assessment and said in his press conference that Stew needed to shoot more, so far so good. 17 points on 5-9 shooting (3-5 from deep and 4-4 at the line) is more in line with the production he needs to get if defenses continue to treat him as dead weight on offense. There were still a few possessions he wasn’t aggressive enough, but a couple of those threes were actually semi-contested and he still let them fly which is huge. If he has a couple of weeks like this and defenses will take notice for real.
Marvin Bagley:
I’m trying to be more positive with Bagley so we will stick with the old “He was fine but also is clearly in over his head as a starter.” 10 points on 4-8 shooting (2-2 from the line) nice but he was very much a guilty party in the Warriors 17 offensive rebounds. I do have to give a shoutout to the assist, as Bagley continues to show a genuine improvement as a passer, he still isn’t good, but there was clearly an emphasis by him to not be such a black hole on offense and so far it has paid off. When a player makes that kind of improvement it is worth noticing and praising. If you had told me before the year that Bagley would make a pass in 3 straight games that made me go “Nice” I never would’ve believed you/
Marcus Sasser:
Bit of a reality check for the red-hot Sasser. 7 points on 3-10 shooting (1-5 from deep) aren’t great, but the larger issue was that on a few possessions, the Pistons asked him to really create/facilitate and he pretty much failed. A couple of turnovers and a couple of shots getting blocked were a stark reminder that as good as Sasser looks when he’s allowed to just be a shooter, he is also severely limited in doing most other things. He can do basic point-guard initiation but other than that he should pretty much just be used as a shooter, which is okay! But still important to point out. Still not awful game, had a rough go defensively and picked up 5 fouls but still never felt like he was the problem.
Stanley Umude:
16 great minutes. 15 points on 5-8 shooting and 3 rebounds. He won’t shoot 4-5 from deep each game, but he continues his pre-season play by showing that he really looks like a real NBA player.
James Wiseman:
I would prefer to have Saddiq Bey that’s for sure.
General:
Like I said at the start, I am very sick of moral victories so I won’t claim one here, but I’m certainly leaving this one not feeling nearly as bad as the last couple of losses. One bit of possibly good news is that with Duren going back out for the ankle injury it gives some hope that the reason he looked so slow (especially defensively) in the last couple of games was not because he was getting figured out but rather that he genuinely wasn’t moving very well because he wasn’t healthy. Will be something to monitor closely whenever he comes back, which is hopefully soon because the Pistons really can’t survive more James Wiseman minutes.