The Detroit Pistons got shellacked in Game 1 by the Milwaukee Bucks. There were some things to note for the Pistons though.
Even after just four minutes of play in Game 1 of their first round playoff series, the Detroit Pistons were getting dominated by the Milwaukee Bucks on both ends of the floor. They were down by 20 after the first quarter, and the absence of Blake Griffin was obvious on both ends of the floor. The Bucks let off the gas some over the remainder of the game, as no starter played more than 25 minutes, but the Pistons just couldn’t muster enough offense to close the gap.
They’ll have till Wednesday to try and regroup and come up with a new game plan, but that might not even be enough with how well Milwaukee played on Sunday night. The Bucks were up by 40 points at one point in the fourth quarter, and it allowed head coach Mike Budenholzer the opportunity to experiment with some different lineups. It also allowed Dwane Casey to get some guys more run to help them get in a groove moving forward.
One major key for them moving forward is obviously going to be the play of center Andre Drummond. Drummond was ejected in the third quarter, and it even further hampered their offense and team as a whole. Their last remaining bigs were Zaza Pachulia, Thon Maker and Jon Leuer. When you’re trotting those guys out against the best team in the NBA from this season, you’re not going to have a good result when it’s over.