In a season full of finding new ways to lose, the Detroit Pistons can now check “being buried by three pointers” off their list. The Milwaukee Bucks used 10 triples to blow the Pistons away by a score of 103-82.
The Bucks would race out to a huge lead fueled largely by Brandon Jennings’ hot shooting early. Carlos Delfino was apparently motivated by playing his former team early on, as he also helped push Milwaukee to a double digit lead after the first quarter. The Bucks let up in the second quarter just a bit, and the Pistons were able to cut into the lead with a 17-5 spurt just prior to halftime. Milwaukee still went into the locker room with a 47-41 lead at recess.
That momentum died in a hurry with the intermission. The Bucks came out shooting, and the Pistons coudln’t match their offensive flow. Jennings put the Bucks on his back, and simply shot the Pistons completely out of the game by himself from beyond the three point line. Combine that with Mike Dunleavy thinking it was 2001 all over again in contributing a 20 point effort, and well, you have a recipe for disaster. In the fourth quarter, Detroit didn’t have much push back, and ended up fading down the stretch.
Pistons’ Bad Boys: Rodney Stuckey and Greg Monroe. Stuckey contributed a nice game, scoring 19 points while getting to the hoop and making a few solid plays. Monroe was a solid force in the middle, scoring 16 points with 10 rebounds. Unfortunately, as per most of this season, anyone playing the role of “Pistons Bad Boy” has little help from the rest of the roster.
Running On Empty: Brandon Knight. It was a tough night for the Pistons’ rookie, who didn’t score, committed four turnovers and looked awkward most of the evening, unable to finish around the hoop. Knight will develop into a good player, but he should remember nights like this as simple growing pains and not stay dejected for too long.
The Final Countdown: Chalk another road loss up for Detroit, who is now a dismal 1-10 away from the Palace this season. The Pistons’ next two games are on the road in New York and New Jersey, two teams that have been fairly average this year. Despite that, neither team is as bad as the Pistons have been, so the pathetic road record stands a chance to get even worse. Unfortunately, Charlotte still has one less win than Detroit, so they remain ahead in the race for all the ping pong balls.