Detroit Pistons Struggle With Injuries And Defense In Big Loss To 76ers: A Tough Watch For Fans

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Detroit Pistons Suffer Defeat at the Hands of Philadelphia 76ers

Eric Vincent: What’s good, Detroit Sports Nation? I am Eric Vincent, your host here at the DSN News Desk. Thank you for being here. We appreciate your time and support, and if you made it through that Detroit Pistons watch tonight. I give you a standing ovation and applause man. Detroit Pistons are reaching a tough plateau at this point in the season after a 31-point loss tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Something’s gotta shake sooner or later. Now mind you, this was supposed to be the game that was gonna be flexed to TNT for primetime, and thank the heavens. That did not happen. This was supposed to be a primetime game and the Detroit Pistons were flexed out because of how bad their performance has been.

They’ve dealt with injuries all season, and this was another example of that. 147 to 116 final score. Just, just bad all around man. The Detroit Pistons had been dealing. With injuries as is and did now kick some more dirt on him. Isaiah Stewart didn’t suit up tonight. Bojan Bogdanović didn’t play tonight.

Jalen Duren still dealing with an ankle injury and this team is really struggling, man. This Anthony Davis type of help on top of already having to deal with being young and, and experienced and dealing with those kinds of growing pains. This is making out for a rough year. As a Detroit Pistons fan, man, I can’t lie. I really cannot.

This has been a tough, tough watch. And again, it’s getting to a point where I think something’s gotta shake. I don’t know what it is that Troy Weaver may have under the, you know, the palm of his hand, but he’s gotta pull something off. Because these kinds of games, even with the inexperience, even with this team being so young, these kinds of performances can’t keep turning out.

You can’t keep getting whapped by 30, you can’t keep putting these horrendous defensive displays on film every night. The Detroit Pistons are ranked near the bottom for defensive rankings. At this point, you can’t convince me that they’re not the worst defensive team in the NBA, especially already not having Jalen Duren on the floor not having Beef Stew. 

Strong Performances From Joel Embiid, James Harden, And Tyrese Maxey

We already knew this was gonna be an issue cuz Nerlens Noel had to start. Kevin Knox started in his place and it routed off with Killian Hayes, Jaden Ivey, and Saddiq Bey starting. And it was nasty all around. I mean, Philly is already one of the best teams in the league, top 10 in offensive rankings in the NBA, and they flexed every bit of it tonight. 36 points from Joel Embiid 11 rebounds, triple-double for James Harden with 16, 12, and 15.

So bad that James Harden only shot the ball seven times against the Detroit Pistons. Anybody who knows James Harden, he is a volume chucker at all costs. And he didn’t even have to be that tonight, didn’t have to be half of that tonight. He was in cruise control, being a facilitator, being a playmaker, doing the other stuff, and getting his other guys involved.

Tyrese Maxey, chipping in with 16. They’re plus minuses. All three of those guys are above 30 in plus minuses. Plus 31 for Tyrese Maxey plus 35 for James Harden, and a plus 36 for Joel Embiid. This was, this was bad. This was a really bad watch. Again, the defense for this team is just abysmal, and you can only expect this by considering whether they’re gonna be trotting out and considering who they’re missing.

You couldn’t have expected this to go any other way. Gave no resistance in the paint. There were a lot of backdoor cuts. We’re still seeing the Detroit Pistons, you know, refusing to get back after a made bucket and not letting the team that you just scored on chucked a pass down the court to get an easy layup.

Not even a transition because it’s only a transition if you miss or come off a turnover. These are made buckets and the Sixers and other opponents are inbounding the ball for easy layups because your team is not sprinting and getting back in half-court to play defense. This has gotta stop, man. This is really bad.

This is really bad. And again, considering how high Bojan Bogdanović’s value is, I won’t be surprised if he’s traded before the trade deadline at this. Before the All-star break at this point, I don’t think they’re gonna wait. Considering how bad this team is at this point, even without Cade Cunningham, even without all these issues that you’ve been dealing with, something has to change.

Inconsistency and Turnovers Plague Detroit Pistons

I don’t think they have a consistent, small forward or power forward that they can rely on for the future. Yet I feel like they’re going through a lot of influx with Saddiq Bey, who’s been inconsistent, and you even saw it again tonight, four of 14 from the field. 0 of six from three. You know, he really wasn’t his consistent self.

Up and down Saddiq. This is what we’ve been seeing all season. Jaden Ivey, 17 points from him. Four turnovers. Now, I remember the last time I talked about Jaden Ivey. I said I wasn’t too stressed about the turnovers that he’s making because, In the perfect situation for the Detroit Pistons, he’s not gonna be your primary ball handler, and these kinds of turnovers will hopefully be minimized, kind of how we saw at the start of the season when Cade was on the floor.

But these turnovers are, are becoming an eyesore for Jaden Ivey, the way he, will gun at a hundred miles an hour down the lane. Jump up in the air and then look for somebody to throw to, on like some Russell Westbrook-type stuff. That is frustrating and rough to watch. Now granted, he is a rookie, so that gives him some bail for making those kinds of mistakes.

You want him to be able to learn from that as he progresses throughout his years, but in his rookie year now, and especially considering the help that’s around him, it was pretty rough watching Jaden Ivey, you know, be the primary decision maker for the team today. Again, I don’t think this is gonna be his primary job with the Detroit Pistons, so I’m not stressing it too much. 

Killian Hayes didn’t really give him a whole lot of help. Five points, two of 11, six assists, but not a strong game from Killian overall. 13 points from Kevin Knox. 17 from Rodney McGruder. Rodney McGruder ties you off the bench with your lead hive of the game.

That’s not a good look. That’s not a good look at all. Detroit Pistons Bench was strong and they’ve been strong really all season, but it’s not a good thing to me because while you got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 players in double digits, you got, McGruder with 17. Alec Burks was 16, Hamidou with 14, and Cory Joseph with 10. Even with four players in double digits off the bench. Even with that being as productive as that is, it’s not being complimented with the starters. And getting like a star performance of somebody that can give you 25 and then maybe somebody else that can piggyback off of that with a 17-point to 22-point night as well.

You’re not getting enough of that consistently with the Detroit Pistons. Like if you had this bench scoring this much, would Cade give you around 2025? Would Jaden Ivey chipping in 17 to efficient, you know, 15 to 16, 17 from Saddiq and Isaiah Stewart and whoever else, and Bojan being as productive as he has been, then that bench scoring helps you.

But when they’re leading the charge on a night, in night out basis, that ain’t a good look. So Detroit Pistons really gotta do something soon, man. Like they really do. And I’ve been saying, I don’t want Alec Burks traded. I really like how he fits on this team. He kind of got a little bit of sloppiness on some of his possessions of playing one-on-one basketball.

But I still like the value that he brings to this team. As a young veteran, it’s getting to a point where they might have to pull the trigger on him because of his contract. Again, they can’t keep trying this out. You can’t keep letting the Detroit Pistons get destroyed the way they are defensively. Like even when they have Bojan in the lineup. Like he gives you the score that he gives you, but you’re not getting any defense behind that.

So sometimes it’s okay to sacrifice defense for offense. But at this rate, when you’re letting up 147 points in one sitting, you can’t survive with that. You can’t survive with that on a night-to-night basis, man. Listen, something’s gonna shake with this team sooner than later. I feel it coming. I really do.

I don’t know what it’s gonna look like and whatever it is, it has to be something that helps solidify for your future. Because you gotta start seeing some things lined up accordingly. You have to. This is unwatchable basketball at this point. It’s unwatchable. There’s nothing wrong with losing. I have no problem with the final score being ugly. 

I have no problem with, you losing a couple of games and not looking as crisp as you’re supposed to. Especially for a young team. But they are putting out unwatchable basketball in January at this point, and again, this is against a great team, one of the favorites in the east. I didn’t expect this to go any other way, but we’ve seen this in stretches now.

Detroit Pistons Struggle with Consistency and Defense

We’ve seen this building in consistency. Like they just got beat up by the Sixers on Sunday. They’ve been getting beat up a lot defensively. They’re one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. So even when they look good, their perimeter defense is atrocious. The way they let backdoor cuts slide out just easily and repetitively. That has to stop. The way they don’t rotate, the way they don’t talk at times.

And then seeing them offensively as well. It seems like they just play a lot of one-on-one basketball which doesn’t really translate to anything. So, I don’t know, man. Something’s gotta shake at a certain point because this team, they’re teetering around a dangerous area right now. We just need Cade Cunningham to head back, baby. Cade! Cade, I hope you get better soon, man. We miss you. We miss you a lot Cade right about now. 

Talk to me in the comment section though. I’d love to hear your feedback about the Detroit Pistons. If you watched the game tonight, let me know what you thought about the game. What did you think about the performance? Are you still watching the Detroit Pistons?

I’d love to hear that feedback from you. Make sure you like the video. Subscribe to the channel as well, as you lock in, getting new to the channel. Make sure you lock in with us at Detroit Sports Nation on our social media as well. Make sure you search and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, search and follow Detroit Sports Nation and lock in with me as well on my social media @iamericvincent.

Thank you all so much for your support. I appreciate your time and I appreciate you being here. I’ll be back again soon, right here with another update from the DSN News Desk.

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