On the Brink | The Palace of Pistons Weekly Drive
The Detroit Pistons are in the perilous position of being down three games to one in the first round of the playoffs.
Good morning Pistons fans, and, well, anyone else that is reading this searching for answers as to why the top seed in the Eastern Conference is on the edge of elimination. There are many, so let’s get into it.
The Orlando Magic, once on the precipice of despair themselves before blowing out the Charlotte Hornets in the Play-In Tournament, are leading the top-seeded Detroit Pistons 3-1 following a 94-88 victory. The series shifts to Michigan now in a do-or-die situation, but the Pistons no longer have home court advantage nor the momentum. Both reside comfortably with the Magic.
Turnover City
There are many reasons why the Pistons trail this series, but a big one is turnovers. Detroit had 16 of them in Game 3, which led to 24 Orlando points. They had 20 turnovers in Game 4, which again resulted in 23 Magic points. Cade Cunningham has 17 of those 36 turnovers, with nine of them in Game 4.
Many of these giveaways have been exceptionally juvenile. The first possession of the game was an entry pass to Jalen Duren that got swiped away very easily, a sign of things to come. Passes going out of bounds, through people’s hands, or in-opportune offensive fouls all resulted in turnovers for the Pistons and stopped any momentum they were able to gather.
Cade has had these issues before, but that is a byproduct of two things: being a high-usage player, and not having a true second high-leverage guy next to him. Aside from Tobias Harris and Ausar Thompson, who have played valiantly, the rest of the team have not pulled their own weight. The margin for error is minuscule, and opposing teams know that. The result? Turnovers.
(Sigh) Jalen Duren
I don’t want to belabor the point about Duren, who continues to be a liability in an alarming way. He was…slightly better in Game 4, to the tune of 12 points and eight rebounds, but also four more turnovers (and a very critical one late in the fourth quarter). There were glimpses of the regular season version of Duren with a few put backs and a mid-range jumper in the first quarter, but nothing that stuck.
Duren attempted eight shots, the same as Duncan Robinson and Ausar Thompson. That is still below what he was averaging in the regular season, and the Pistons desperately need a double-double from their All-Star big.
On a side note, how much money is Duren costing himself? The two sides were unable to come to an agreement on an extension this past offseason, and this playoff performance cannot be helping his case.
Where is the Urgency?
The most damning aspect of all of this is Detroit’s seeming lack of urgency or care given the situation they were in. While trailing in the third and fourth quarter, the Pistons were methodically getting into their sets late, giving the ball away with silly turnovers, and running out lineups that had no chance of generating any offense. The Pistons lost the Cade minutes, something that cannot happen, and were getting beaten down worse with him off.
Both Harris and Bickerstaff talked about the team’s lack of urgency in their post-game press conferences. But talk is cheap. This is the same issue Bickerstaff’s Cleveland Cavaliers teams had in their playoff failures. Talking about toughness, “getting back to what we do”, and lacking energy or urgency when the going gets tough became staples of those teams in the postseason.
Well, the going is tough.
Teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit before, but its far and few between. The Pistons don’t look like a team prepared or capable of doing that.
There is little point in rehashing what Trajan Langdon and the front office could have done at the deadline to plug the obvious holes in this roster, because what’s done is done. Let's see what this Detroit team has with their backs against the wall and the crowd behind them.