To say that the Detroit Pistons reached a new low on Monday night would be an understatement.
They scored a season-low 76 points against the Charlotte Hornets, who came into Monday night with only 16 wins of their own. Detroit missed several easy shots, including layups and free-throw attempts en route to their worst offensive performance of the year.
It didn’t help things that Derrick Rose (left hip adductor strain) and Svi Mykhailiuk (right hip strain) were both unavailable. But head coach Dwane Casey didn’t mince words afterwards – his team just didn’t play smart enough.
“It wasn’t effort,” Casey said. “I thought we were trying. We just didn’t play smart; execution, understanding where guys are going to be, screening, timing.”
However, Casey maintains that he’s not going to sugarcoat anything and will continue to try to build the necessary fundamentals for his team to be successful in the future.
“I’m not going to be Mr. Candy Man,” he said. “I’m going to continue to teach hard and coach hard when it’s needed. Because that’s what stays in your locker room, the good coaching, the fundamental coaching, what we have to do to maintain a culture, because at some point we’re going to have our team together and you don’t want to slip right now with your culture, your rules, your fundamentals or whatever you’re trying to do as a team, your identity.
“I thought we played hard and I think once that goes, then you really are concerned, you’re going to have nights like this where you miss open shots. But when you stop playing hard is when you have problems.”
Coupled with the season low in scoring were 21 turnovers, a backbreaker for any team.
“Twenty-one turnovers. That’s the bottom line,” Casey said. “As you go right through our roster we turn it over. I’ll take the blame for it, because we talked about it, I guess it didn’t sink in enough but 21 turnovers for 21 points in an 11-point game and it’s not like they were setting the world on fire offensively.”
The Pistons will have a chance to get back into the win column on Wednesday when they visit the Orlando Magic.
– – Quotes courtesy of Lauren Williams of MLive Link– –
