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Another game where you can at least feel good about the effort put forth, but still disappointing to come up short. I am over the moral victories but the hope is that they can carry this fight into their games when they start playing worse teams again and hopefully get a few wins.

Box score.

Cade Cunningham:

Starting to see a trend here! Big counting stats, 33 points, 8 boards, and 8 assists in 39 minutes of work. But the 33 points required 11-27 from the field (2-8 from deep) and 9-10 at the line good for 33 points on 32 shot equivalents which is poor. Toss in another 5 turnovers to go along with those 8 assists and Cade continues to simply not be efficient enough as an offensive player. I don’t know how long this is going to be the case, hopefully, when they get healthy they can make some lineup decisions to help him out, but the story remains the same. He needs to get a few more shots to go in the hoop and a few fewer passes end up in the hands of the other team each night. It’s hard to say he hasn’t been good because with the usage rate he has and the lineups around him he is in a very tough spot, and watching the games I don’t think anyone would say that he hasn’t been the Pistons best player, but somehow it needs to get better. (worth noting one of his shot attempts was a half-court heave at the end of the game)

Killian Hayes:

Took more shots than is ideal but 14 points on 6-15 shooting with 5 boards and 4 assists against 1 turnover is a decent enough night for Hayes. When he was on the floor Lillard also struggled far more than when he wasn’t, including down the stretch when Williams opted for Sasser on the floor instead of Killian (which to be fair, was a totally reasonable thing to do given how well Sasser was playing). He continues to show his quality and while the Pistons starting lineup continues to not really work, it will be hard to move Hayes from major minutes regardless of how healthy the Pistons are. He remains a high-level defender and takes good care of the ball, two things the Pistons need.

Ausar Thompson:

Like Cade, we are really starting to fall into a pattern here, although at least this pattern feels a bit better. 6 points on 3-8 shooting (0-1 from deep) and generally caused spacing issues offensively, but 15(!!) rebounds, 3 assists, and a block show he will not stop stuffing the stat sheet regardless of his scoring. The main thing that was a disappointment is probably that when he was asked to check Lillard it mostly went poorly for him. The fact that this even registers as a disappointment (it isn’t like Lillard torched him) shows how good he has been defensively, but he did get beaten handily on a number of possessions. That’s okay, but worth keeping a little bit of perspective on one of the better rookie defenders you will ever see, because he is still a rookie.

Isaiah Stewart:

After a game where I felt like he really got into a great mindset and produced effectively, Stewart fell into a dud in this one. 8 points on 3-9 shooting, 2-7 from deep, just 4 boards, and 1 assist on the night. He was tasked with guarding Giannis which he did fine at, although it seemed like Giannis was just hitting his stride on the night when he got ejected (and that was a really stupid ejection btw) even so, Giannis ended with 15 points on 6-16 shooting with 5 assists which is far below his normal production even in just 22 minutes so credit there.

Jalen Duren:

Of two minds about this game, on one hand, 11 points on 5-10 shooting with 12 rebounds and 5 assists (also 5 fouls) in 28 minutes of play is fine but not great for what Duren has been this season, on the flip side he looked far more healthy and tore the Bucks apart early in the game until they made some adjustments, and after they adjusted to stop him from dunking everything in sight (he had 9 points in the first quarter) he made effective passes on his way to 5 assists. There were some defensively lapses but I think he looked much quicker and on point than his previous two outings so I’m going to choose to believe that he looked so out of sorts because he needed one more game off to get his ankle to 100%.

Even if that is the case and it isn’t as simple as him being young so he will have bad nights, its still abundantly clear that both he and the Pistons defensive scheme are probably going to struggle with any centers who can shoot this season. Lopez caused issues for the Pistons all night whether by scoring himself or causing cracks in the rest of the defense for others (especially Lillard) to exploit.

Marcus Sasser:

Wow. It is obviously too early to make any concrete statements about Sasser’s future, he is still shooting 50% from deep which will regress at least a bit, and he continues to struggle to do almost anything on offense that isn’t shooting. That said, if he’s even close to this good a shooter that is just fine, 26 points on 11-17 shooting with a pair of assists in 29 minutes. I’m not certain I would’ve played him over Killian down the stretch due to Lillard being on the other team but Sasser was hugely instrumental in the comeback so its certainly defensible. The best thing that stands out for Sasser is how comfortable he is taking pullup threes, the type of shots that can completely break defensive schemes, and even if his three-point shot does regress quite a bit from a raw percentage stand-point, he clearly has that shot in his arsenal. He’s been a great spark of joy in the early season and providing shooting that the team desperately needs.

Marvin Bagley:

Got a little extra run with Duren in a bit of foul trouble, and in those 20 minutes he looked good. 12 points on 5-6 shooting (2-2 at the line) with 2 boards and 2 assists. The defense wasn’t great but he did have a couple of nice possessions on that end and he also made a couple of genuinely nice passes. It isn’t a basketball epiphany, but its clear he’s put in the work needed on his two biggest weaknesses, and while he’s still not a good defender or a good passer, he’s no longer comically bad which makes a big difference. I liked what I saw from him.

Stanley Umude:

Not a big night but his only bucket (in 9 minutes) saw him make a huge block then come down the floor for a layup so that was cool.

Jared Rhoden:

13 minutes, 6 points on 3-4 shooting from the field with 3 assists. Neither Rhoden or Umude has exactly popped in a big way, but both guys look like they belong on an NBA floor at least which is nice.

General:

Tough game to lose. Giannis getting ejected cheaply and Lillard wasn’t on fire from deep which made it feel like this was a game for stealing, to come up just short, including two pretty disappointing efforts in the closing possessions. Still, it does feel like certain things are getting better so hopefully they can get some wins soon.