Game Recap/Notes: Game #9. Pistons 91 - Bucks 116.
Bad night. The Bucks didn’t feel like they played all that well and they still blew out the hapless Pistons. Just like the second half of the last few games proved, when Cade Cunningham isn’t able to completely carry the offense this team is done for.
Cade Cunningham:
A stinker for Cade. The Bucks showed up ready to overload against him and he bricked a few midrange jumpers that he’s been hitting for the past couple of weeks on his way to just 10 points on 13 shots. He did manage 6 boards and 4 assists which is nice, but the Pistons stand little chance when Cade is so mitigated. And this isn’t to rag on Cade too much, the Bucks are an excellent defensive team and he’s the biggest threat on the floor, but its still the truth that the team can’t afford to have him be shut down like this.
Jaden Ivey:
On a night where Cade was completely bottled up it would’ve been nice to see Ivey step into the void and that didn’t happen. Ivey finished with just 7 points on 11 shots with 1 assist. 4 steals jumps off the score sheet and he has shown a real nose for steals but don’t mistake that for effective defense.
Saddiq Bey:
Just about the only starter that wasn’t off his game, finished with 22 points on 17 shot equivalents in including a whooping 9-10 from the line. It should be noted he padded his line a bit with a couple of buckets in garbage time but still, he was one of the only guys who successfully applied some aggression offensively tonight and also made a couple of nice defensive plays.
Bojan Bogdanovic:
Kept the Pistons offense afloat early on with some great shot-making but cooled off on his way to 14 points on 12 shots with 2 assists against 7 turnovers. Bojan is right there with Cade to be honest, as a guy that the Pistons can’t really live with him being off for a night. I’m not going to rag too hard on Bojan because he’s probably been the Pistons best player so far, but still, tonight was a stinker.
Isaiah Stewart:
The efficiency was where it needed to be tonight with 16 points on 10 shot equivalents, like Bey he padded that line a bit with a couple of buckets in garbage time but still.
The degree to which opposing defenses ignore him remains unacceptable, but at least he hit a couple of threes tonight so lets just pray that this is a spring-board to getting defenses to guard him because he is a huge reason that multiple teams have managed to completely strangle the Pistons of all attempts at the rim as opposing centers are aggressive in walling off the ball-handlers.
He was the one guy playing decent defense though.
For starters, the defense actually wasn’t the problem tonight. 116 points isn’t ideal but in today’s NBA that isn’t a huge deal. The Bucks came into this game as the 15th ranked offense in the league by scoring 112 points per 100 possessions and they had well over 100 possessions tonight. The problem is that the Pistons were completely stifled offensively.
This is going to have to get a post focused on this issue, but the basic idea is that he is a total anchor offensively, and while he does some stuff defensively his size is easy for most opponents to take advantage of so he’s barely a net-positive defensively most nights. If you slotted even like, Mason Plumlee back into this starting lineup they’d still be sieves on defense but on most nights would score in bunches. With Stewart he isn’t impactful enough defensively to be meaningful but he is bad enough offensively to be meaningful. I also think he’s been noticeably gassed at times with all the minutes he’s playing which is another issue.
You stopped hating Saddiq and moved onto Stew I see
If you wanna put it that way then sure. Given that Duren is hurt they can keep giving him chances. My unofficial thought was to let him try and shoot his way out of this thru the end of November or so before pulling the plug, but it is painful to watch the ball handlers run into walls repeatedly while Stewart stands alone somewhere.
One last note, he hit a mid-range jumper tonight toward garbage time. I’ve brought this up here before, but why don’t they lean on that? Stewart actually took a decent number of middies in high school and college. No one ever guards him beyond the arc and even after tonight’s 2-3 he’s shooting well below 30% from deep, just have him step in at the free-throw line where he at least seems to have a degree of comfort. Even if it’s just a starting point to get him confidence before going back beyond the arc, its better than what he’s doing right now.
Isaiah Livers:
Didn’t have much impact as the bench mob was pretty well shut down. Went 1-4 from deep.
Nerlens Noel:
Looks… okay? Only 13 minutes and in the second half he was in when the Bucks finally started to hit threes, he did get a couple of buckets which is nice. But certainly didn’t have much impact.
Killian Hayes:
5 points on 6 shot equivalents is not terrible, hit a three, made several good defensive plays. I tweeted this tonight but for those who are well adjusted enough to not be on twitter, I think the Pistons should just tell him to try and be Bruce Brown at this point. Killian genuinely plays excellent defense across multiple positions, he clearly has good feel for passing and cutting.
Hamidou Diallo:
4 points on 4 shots, made a couple plays.
Others:
Corey Joseph got in a bit before garbage time but not much. Key, McGruder, and Knox all got into garbage time. Knox hit a couple of shots at the very end of the game.
General:
Despite my above assertion that the defense wasn’t that bad because the Bucks didn’t actually score that much. It is worth noting that the Bucks shot just 26% from deep tonight and that wasn’t because of the Pistons’ swarming closeouts. The defense was still very much a problem, it just wasn’t the problem.
The Bucks are really good, and playing the Pistons twice in a row allowed them to make actual adjustments for the Pistons which is tough. I’m not going to read too much into this game.
What do you think? Killian as Bruce Brown? Whats the offensive solution?