Sad end to the evening at Little Caesars Arena. On a tap dunk, Daniel Gafford has just given his Wizards a 20-point lead on the Pistons floor. There are two minutes left to play and some home fans have earned the right to boo their team.
The Pistons lost the game that should not have been lost against the worst team in the East, tied with them, which remained on nine defeats in a row. Rather than stopping their own losing streak, the Michigan men are now at 14 straight losses. A sad franchise record equaled…
From there, we better understand the level of frustration displayed by Monty Williams, during an expeditious press conference. A journalist barely had time to ask him how disappointing this 15th defeat of the year was. “ Very. Very », the coach simply replies, cutting him off. “ How would you describe the state of mind? », continues the reporter. “ Poor », describes the coach in one word.
He ends up developing: “ It’s about development on this team, maturity, understanding what the game plan is. All the things we talk about all the time. Enough talking. There was no aggression on the pitch. It wasn’t Pistons basketball, far from it. This is what it is. »
Disappeared promises
His speech clearly contrasts with what emerged from the first games of the regular season. The Pistons particularly tended to find a strong defensive identity. But the promises of this first week of competition, during which they won their only two matches of the year, seem distant today…
“ The first thing is we didn’t play hard tonight. We’ve had enough. Playing hard isn’t about talent. From the start (of the season)I felt a lot of energy from this team and it was in defense, (while being) very physical », recalls Isaiah Livers, author of a bad 8-point match (3/11 on shots and -26 on +/- when he was in play).
This toughness, outside of perhaps rookie Ausar Thompson, is difficult to embody by the Pistons at the moment. “ We have to have guys in this jersey who honor the history of this franchise by playing at a high level every night. I’m not talking about execution. I’m just talking about fighting. It wasn’t, and it’s my fault », Regrets Monty Williams.
His team doesn’t have the most obvious timeline to try to bounce back. In the coming weeks, she will only face teams (Lakers, Knicks, Cavs, Pacers, Sixers, Bucks) with a positive record…
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Cade Cunningham | 16 | 35.7 | 40.3 | 33.0 | 88.7 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 7.1 | 4.8 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 22.0 |
| Jalen Duren | 9 | 28.8 | 60.7 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 3.6 | 7.3 | 10.9 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 3.7 | 12.7 |
| Jaden Ivey | 12 | 23.0 | 52.9 | 32.5 | 77.1 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 12.5 |
| Alex Burks | 10 | 22.3 | 37.0 | 41.7 | 84.2 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 12.5 |
| Isaiah Stewart II | 16 | 31.9 | 46.7 | 41.4 | 77.4 | 2.0 | 5.4 | 7.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 11.8 |
| Kevin Knox | 4 | 27.4 | 51.4 | 44.4 | 50.0 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 11.8 |
| Ausar Thompson | 16 | 30.4 | 45.0 | 13.8 | 69.8 | 3.6 | 6.3 | 9.8 | 3.2 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 3.6 | 11.1 |
| Marvin Bagley III | 16 | 19.2 | 58.6 | 20.0 | 90.5 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 5.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 10.9 |
| Killian Hayes | 15 | 27.4 | 39.6 | 30.4 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 9.2 |
| Marcus Sasser | 16 | 17.8 | 47.7 | 38.5 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 8.1 |
| Isaiah Livers | 2 | 24.4 | 33.3 | 28.6 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 7.0 |
| Stanley Umude | 12 | 10.9 | 52.9 | 57.1 | 90.5 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 5.6 |
| James Wiseman | 8 | 11.3 | 61.3 | 0.0 | 57.1 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.3 |
| Joe Harris | 7 | 14.0 | 36.0 | 31.6 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 3.4 |
| Jared Rhoden | 5 | 5.9 | 55.6 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 2.6 |
| Malcolm Cazalon | 1 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
