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The Pistons, who had been trending upward last week have regressed again. They have gone 1-3 this week and are currently 15-28 overall.
The Pistons lost on the road at New York 99-91, beat Boston in the Palace 92-86, and lost at home to Indiana 105-93 and Portland 97-93.
In the New York game, Richard Hamilton was out with a stomach flu, joining Ben Gordon and Will Bynum on the inactive list. Chris Wilcox was also out by halftime with back problems. Though short-handed, the Pistons scrapped to stay in the game, but Rodney Stuckey lacked sufficient offensive support. Charlie Villanueva was also assessed a flagrant 1 foul that stalled the Pistons offensive momentum in the second half.
Rasheed Wallace came back to the Palace for the first time this season. The Celtics were missing Kevin Garnett (knee), but the Pistons couldn’t sympathize with Tayshaun Prince (knee), Ben Gordon (groin), and Will Bynum (ankle) still down. Chris Wilcox was still hampered by back problems as well. The Pistons gave the Celtics 23 points off 15 turnovers. But they fought throughout the game, shut Boston down with a zone defense and rallied in the second half to earn one of their best wins of the year. Ben Wallace and Jason Maxiell both blocked second half dunk attempts by Rasheed Wallace.
After beating one of the best teams in the East, the Pistons lost to one of the worse in the Pacers, who were coming off a loss and had been on the road for the last week. The Pistons opened the game well. But fell flat for the rest of the first half, except a stretch in the second quarter when they pulled to within 8 points at halftime. But they began the third half with no urgency and fell behind by over 20 points again. When Coach Kuester emptied the bench in the fourth quarter to rest the starters for the following game with Portland, he and Tayshaun Prince exchanged heated words. Both declined to go into detail except to say that things got emotional and they’re moving ahead now.
The Pistons played Portland, a team even more decimated by injuries than they are and coming off a tough overtime loss on the road to Boston. Another potential win waiting to be seized. The Pistons fell behind by 18 in the first half. They rallied in the second half and exchanged the lead with the Trailblazers a few times. Trailing by three with less than 10 seconds to go, the Pistons had 3 attempts to tie the game with triple attempts, but missed all their shots. The Pistons shot poorly from the perimeter this game and it cost them. Charlie Villanueva and Juwan Howard also got into a shoving match in the second half. Neither was ejected, but both received technical fouls and Villanueva was charged with a flagrant 1 foul in addition. Fines are likely.
Trailing the eight East seed by 6.5 games, the Pistons playoff prospects grow dimmer with every loss going forward. Three games remain on their home stand, but will the Pistons take advantage of them?
The Pistons are hobbled by injuries, but they have also cost themselves several winnable games. The Pistons also played better without Tayshaun Prince, using a starting lineup of Stuckey/Hamilton/Jerebko/Wallace/Wilcox. Many Piston fans consider Hamilton to be redundant, but Hamilton is productive and facilitates the offense with excellent passing to the frontcourt. Like Hamilton and Stuckey, Prince needs to dominate the ball. Having a third starter who needs to handle the ball has cut down ball movement on the offense. Prince is undoubtedly frustrated by the injuries he has taken this year and by the fact that his future in Detroit is limited by the drafting of Jonas Jerebko, Austin Daye, and DaJuan Summers who can all play at both forward positions.
Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva have both had good and bad games over the week. They need to become consistent contributors. Villanueva, who has been an easy going personality, has become more aggressive on the floor at times, but it has led to his getting needless flagrant fouls that don’t contribute to winning. He will need to channel his aggression constructively.
Coach Kuester is rightfully disappointed with the Pistons’ lack of consistent effort and smart play. With the return of Prince, though, he is again giving less time to Jerebko and Daye. Both rookies need 15-20 minutes of play per game to develop. Working Dajuan Summers into the rotation would be a nice plus, too. Also mysterious is Kuester’s shelving of Kwame Brown whose rebounding and defensive presence would have been useful this past week.
As stated last week, Coach Kuester needs to develop a bench with the rookies and other players and stop using short veteran lineups, whether the Pistons are contending for a playoff position or not.
Currently 5.5 games out of the 8th seed, every loss going forward puts the Pistons further out of the playoff picture. The Pistons’ success rests on the players executing and playing the right way for a full 48 minutes and Coach Kuester utilizing all the talent he has at his disposable in the most efficient lineups. Neither is happening at this point.
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