It was all good just a week ago.
A week ago today, the Detroit Pistons were sitting at 5-1 and were getting primed for a big-time matchup against the Golden State Warriors. People were calling it a potential NBA Finals preview, and with the way the Pistons were playing at the time, it didn’t even feel 100 percent facetious.
Fast forward a week, and things are much more grim for the Pistons and their fans. Now in the midst of a four-game losing streak, one that started with the loss at Oracle Arena, Pistons fans are left to wonder if the hot start was a complete mirage, and the team of the last three games is what we can get used to seeing throughout the remainder of the season.
Although this team is much better than the way they played in Sacramento and during the two-game stretch at the Staples Center, there are legitimate reasons for concern. The offense is a complete mess right now. Actual ball movement has become a rarity, and too often the Pistons are forced to into long contested jumpers when the shot clock is running low or high pick and rolls that end up going nowhere fast. Andre Drummond post-ups are pretty when they produce points, but he’s still far too inconsistent with his back to the basket to be completely relied upon as the main source of offense.
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned through 10 games, it’s that as Reggie Jackson goes, so do the 2015-16 Detroit Pistons. In the four losses since Jackson’s heroic 26-point 4th quarter in Portland, he has just 17 assists compared to 16 turnovers. To go along with coming down with a turnover plague, he’s an abysmal 5-for-22 from distance and 23-for-60 from the field overall (38.3%). Jackson was so off in the loss against the Lakers that it was Spencer Dinwiddie, who had a bit of a coming out party in the game, who Stan Van Gundy elected to go with down the stretch.
The good news for the Pistons is that Reggie Jackson will assuredly play better than he has over the last four games. This team, stocked with shooters, should begin to hit shots at a much higher rate than they are currently. Stanley Johnson should begin to put up performances like the ones we saw against Golden State and the Clippers on a more consistent basis.
Against the Lakers, the Pistons went 7-for-27 from distance, and that can reasonably be attributed to tired legs and fatigue at the end of a six-game West Coast swing that had begun over a week prior.
A big positive to takeaway from the loss to the Lakers is the play of the aforementioned Dinwiddie. Even while they were winning, the bench and the backup point guard position appeared to be an issue that may hamper how good the team could actually become. While bench scoring will still be tricky at times, Dinwiddie showed enough to give Pistons fans reason to believe that he can be the answer backing up Reggie Jackson, at least until Brandon Jennings returns. On top of Dinwiddie’s 17 points on 6-for-9 from the field, he took care of the ball, committing just one turnover in 24 minutes.
Simply put, the Pistons blew opportunities against the Clippers and Lakers. They coughed up a 17-point lead to a Clippers squad that was without its starting backcourt, and then failed to salvage a .500 record on the road trip by losing one of the uglier NBA games you’ll see this year to the Lakers. Kobe Bryant took almost double the shots of anybody else and was 6-for-19, and the Pistons still found a way to lose.
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If you’re a Pistons fan, you should feel disappointed after the start of the road trip appeared to be the Pistons cementing themselves as a potential player in the Eastern Conference. With that said, it’s important to maintain some perspective. After all, the team would have to lose its next 18 games to match last year’s start, and we were still talking playoffs as a realistic possibility for the 2014-15 Pistons until late February.
There are 72 games left, and the Pistons are .500. The roster is still plenty good enough to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, and this is still the same group that has netted impressive wins over the Hawks, Jazz, Bulls, and Suns.
What’s tough is that it doesn’t get any easier for the Pistons while they’re currently in a funk, as games vs. Cleveland, at Minnesota, vs. Washington, and at Milwaukee are the next four up. After that, the Pistons host Miami and then head to Oklahoma City for Reggie Jackson’s first game in Oklahoma City and against Russell Westbrook since the trade. It’s a key six-game test and could go a long way in determining whether or not these Pistons have truly turned a corner, or are again bound for another back of the lottery slot.