Detroit Pistons: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

The Detroit Pistons opened the 2018-19 season with a down-to-the-wire victory over the Brooklyn Nets at the Little Caesars Arena.

Every win and loss will be crucial for a team like the Detroit Pistons that is riding the borderline between the NBA playoffs and the NBA Draft Lottery.

Which means Wednesday’s season-opening 103-100 victory over the Brooklyn Nets was kind of a big deal — and not just because Detroit legend Isiah Thomas addressed the crowd before the game and late Detroit icon Aretha Franklin was honored with the playing of her rendition of the national anthem.

It wasn’t a pretty win for head coach Dwane Casey in his first game with the Pistons, barely edging a Nets team that has perennially been among the league’s worst in recent years. As the old saying goes, however, a win is a win.

For a franchise and fanbase that is hoping to get back into the mix of contenders after missing the postseason eight of the last nine years, every game has playoff implications.

It can be argued that you can’t learn a lot from one game, especially when it’s the first of 82 in the regular season.

It can’t be argued that it counts as a positive to see the Pistons battle back from a slow start (with a shorthanded lineup) and finish off a game that easily could’ve been lost at the end.

Here are three takeaways from the Pistons’ first win of the season.