Detroit Pistons: A Tale Of Two Losses
By Adam McGee
The Detroit Pistons have now lost 12 straight games. Any preseason optimism that Stan Van Gundy was going to step in and offer the franchise an instant fix has long been replaced by a heavy dose of realism. The Pistons aren’t going to make the playoffs this season, as even in the mess that is in the Eastern Conference they may already have too much ground to make up.
Whether he wanted to give a roster of players who seem talented on paper a season to show what they can do, or he had his president of basketball operations hat on and wanted to tank in stealth, Van Gundy’s decision to more or less stick with the style of last season’s rotation won’t be a long-term move.
With guys like Greg Monroe, Jonas Jerebko, Kyle Singler, Joel Anthony and Luigi Datome all scheduled to come off the Pistons salary bill next summer, there’s potential for a larger scale roster shake-up on the horizon. What his players can show him, individually and collectively, before the end of the season will likely go a long way towards making Van Gundy’s decisions for him.
With that in mind, the last two nights have given an interesting snapshot of the possible directions the rest of Detroit’s season could go in. The games against the Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder may have both ended in defeat for the Pistons, but the stories of those two games, and the impact they can have on the team going forward are polar opposites.
Starting with the Philadelphia 76ers, they came into Detroit as the laughing stock of the NBA who had finally just picked up their first win of the season a few nights earlier against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Quite simply, this was a game that the Pistons needed to win, both for their own confidence and to keep the heat of the media spotlight away from them.
Somehow, the Pistons blew it though. Having held a two-possession lead with less than a minute remaining, a combination of missed free throws and brainless fouls allowed the Sixers to extend the game, and meant that Detroit had backed their way into overtime.
With Philadelphia then able to hold the Pistons to only a single point for the entirety of the extra period, it capped off one of the most demoralizing defeats possible.
Credit where it’s due though, a different looking Detroit team came out to face the Oklahoma City Thunder the following night. Against an opponent of almost incomparably higher quality, the Pistons looked re-energized and gave it all that they had.
The Pistons even led at half time, but perhaps what was most impressive was the way in which Detroit reacted to Oklahoma City’s inevitable charge. Finding themselves down by as many as nine points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Pistons fought back, and if Josh Smith‘s last gasp three-point attempt had fallen, they would even have stolen a victory.
What’s important here is the difference in attitude. The Pistons are going to lose plenty more games this season, but just how many will be determined by whether they let lesser teams out-will and outlast them, or they give better teams all that they can handle by sheer force of determination.
Even if the season isn’t going to end in success in the Motor City, the fans would at least like to see some progress in terms of a change in the culture, or some potential for growth. Now, the onus to provide that lies at the feet of the Detroit Pistons’ players.