Detroit Pistons: 3 takeaways from 8-3 start to the season

3. The Pistons can shoot

The Detroit Pistons have scored 100 points or more in nine out 11 games this season.

The Pistons finished 28th in percentage and 26th in 3-point attempts last season. This year, the Pistons are ranked 11th in 3-point accuracy and ranked 17th in 3-point attempts. Tobias Harris is leading the Pistons’ drive in the 3-point bonanza.

Harris leads the team in scoring average with 20 points per game and is on track to be named to his first All-Star team.

After practice last week, Stan Van Gundy talked with NBA.com’s Keith Langlois about his team’s new shooting proficiency and the benefits of having multiple shooters who can get hot on any given night.

"“The main thing with Tobias, there’ll be nights where people try to take that away from him but that just opens up his driving angles,” Van Gundy said. “For all of our guys, shoot them in rhythm without hesitation and then – if people are taking it away – it opens up other things. We’ve tried to make it an emphasis and I think certainly Tobias has been one who’s done a really good job of that. You’re either going to give him that shot or you’re going to have to get up on him and create driving angles for him.”"

Van Gundy’s Pistons have the second-best record in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics and are first in the Central Division. The upward trend is almost a 180-degree turn in a positive direction for the Pistons, who ended last season with the 10th-best record in the Eastern Conference.