Three quick observations from Sunday night’s 111-91 win over the Los Angeles Lakers
SLAM DUNK – Any way you measure it, that was a successful week the Pistons wrapped up by crushing the Los Angeles Lakers. Sweeping all four home games looked like a possibility against teams with losing records, but Houston and Milwaukee were playoff teams a season ago and expected to be again and Phoenix, as well, saw a postseason run coming. The Pistons averaged 114 points in their four wins and shot better than 50 percent twice and hit 44.1 percent against the Lakers. They came into Sunday’s game ranked 21st in offensive efficiency and seventh in defensive efficiency. If they can maintain a top-10 defensive rating – and Stan Van Gundy expects their defense to improve once they get past a particularly congest portion of the schedule that lasts until the Dec. 18 game at Chicago, giving them a chance to address it more fully in practice – while rising into a middle-of-the-pack team offensively, they’ll be in solid shape. Eastern Conference teams can’t afford tailspins this season to the degree they could in recent years. The Pistons were one of 10 conference teams to start the day with a winning record; the West has only six such teams. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Pistons with 22 points. Andre Drummond had 18 points and 15 rebounds. Kobe Bryant, playing his final game at The Palace, missed his first nine shots before making a third-quarter triple. He finished with five points on 2 of 15 shooting and three turnovers in 26 minutes.
FREE THROW – With five games in seven days beginning with the rout of the Lakers, Stan Van Gundy had to be hoping for a breather so he could cut the minutes of his starters heading into Monday’s game at Charlotte. Foul trouble forced his hand, to a degree, as Ersan Ilyasova, Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all went to the bench with two fouls before the game was seven minutes old. Van Gundy is understandably reluctant to expand the rotation to a 10th man, which would most affect Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris, who came into Sunday’s game second and fourth in the league in minutes per game at 37-plus. Caldwell-Pope got the fourth quarter off and Morris came out early in the quarter, both playing a little less than 31 minutes. Andre Drummond played only 24 minutes and Reggie Jackson 25. The schedule not only will be hectic, but it stiffens again. Of the six games the Pistons will play over the next 11 days, only Philadelphia has a losing record.
3-POINTER – Darrun Hilliard’s D-League debut left Stan Van Gundy impressed, but not surprised. Hilliard’s been playing well in practice, too. “We like what he brings to the table. He’s doing everything he can to impress us and to get his chance,” Van Gundy said of Hilliard, the 38th overall choice in June’s draft after a four-year career at Villanova. “Yesterday certainly helped him.” Hilliard scored 31 points, hitting 11 of 22 shots and 3 of 8 from the 3-point line while getting to the line eight times as the Grand Rapids Drive scored a 128-99 win over Toronto’s new affiliate in Mississauga, Ontario. Van Gundy said Hilliard likely will return to the Drive for games on Dec. 13 and Dec. 19, both days the Pistons are scheduled to be off with no practice to be held. Hilliard played the final 6:42 of Sunday’s blowout and scored five points.
