After a slow first quarter, the Detroit Pistons took over the showdown with the New Orleans Pelicans tonight on their way to a decisive victory in the return of former coach Stan Van Gundy to Detroit.
The win is Detroit’s eighth of the season and somehow puts them just four games out of the eight selected in the poor Eastern Conference. It says more about the East than about the Pistons.
Without Blake Griffin (halftime) and Sekou Doumbouya (concussion), the Pistons players stepped on the bench and fired several runs. But the biggest story was Mason Plumlee’s first career triple-double.
Plumlee scored 17 points while grabbing 10 shots and throwing 10 shots while struggling with his formidable counterpart Steven Adams. Plumlee was solid everywhere, which fits on an evening where almost the entire team performed well.
Saddiq Bey was rewarded for his good performance against Boston and responded with 16 points on four out of eight shots from the depths while playing a solid defense.
Plumlee and Bey were two of six (!) Suckers with at least 15 points against the Pelicans. The group included Svi Mykhailiuk, who shot well off the floor as he made the dribble while attacking the close-range shots.
The younger wing rotation led to many more offensive tackles in general, and very clever kick-out passes led to Detroit’s best ball movement game of the year. On several occasions the Pistons probably gave the ball also much in an effort to keep the ball going.
Defensively, the Pistons did a good job of limiting Pelicans, not Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, who each scored 26 points. Despite these numbers, Detroit has made both of the Pelicans’ dynamic scorers work for everything they get.
All of this led to Detroit’s first winning streak of the season. It comes at a time when their younger players are starting to develop chemistry and game by game build on success.
Other thoughts
- Isaiah Stewart has played about as well defensively as you can on Zion Williamson. Zion finished with him a few times, but Stewart was, as usual, a brick wall.
- Josh Jackson is completely back from his ankle injury and the creation is becoming a real thing.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., shot pretty badly, but he played within the offense while still being assertive, which is the role Detroit needs to play.
- It was nice to see that the rest of the team had an extra offensive load, while Jerami Grant struggled a bit.