Saw DET for a 2nd time in a week.
There's something just wrong there.
Blake works his ass off for diminishing returns late.
RegJax might or might not be on the court at any given time. It's hard to tell. He had 3 assist and 3 turnovers and I don't remember any except one oop to Drummond. Nobody passes to Drummond. Well Blake tried to get it to Drummond a few times, but only once effectively. So every time Bulldog Drummond gets a rebound he's putting it back up. Triple teamed? No problem. He misses with a lot of junk flips, but makes his dunks.
DE^ staye din the game early with Blake and Bullock 3's. But they're not a good 3-pt shooting team, and that wasn't going to last. In contrast, Bropez went 7-12 on 3's for MIL! MIL shot 60%FG for the game and basically scored inside, got open 3, and open midrange J's all they wanted. StanJohnson didn't play and DET could have used his defensive hustle.
On offense, DET needs more ballhandlers. Guys who can drive. And they are a slow team. Drummond, Blake, Kennard, Jose, Bullock, Leuer. Mostly plodders. They put up a stat that DET is first in distance covered on offense and I think 3rd in number of passes. Yet all that results in 25th in assists and some other negative stat.
They ran a fair amount of weave and dribble hand-offs, but it was so predictable a few times Bledsoe knew what was up and got over the pick almost before his man, blowing it up, so the handoff couldn't occur.
Seems that the system is either flawed or simply doesn't fit the personnel. Drummond is underutilized. He had 5 FT's and zero the two games before that, including the IND game I saw. RegJax has no presence on either end. They are an erratic 3-ball team.
They need more penetration.
DET is in trouble. The pieces don't fit.
Just checked and Pistons give up the 4th fewest 3-pointers and hold teams to the worst 3-pt%. So I guess that's a point of emphasis for them. Sure didn't bother Lopez, but the rest of the Bucks went 3-15 on 3's. Bucks got layups, dunks and wide open midrange J's all game. They shot 71% FG on 2 point shots!
Despite giving up just 31% on 3's, DEt allows 47% overall FG, bad for 22nd in the League.