FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Saturday night’s 97-95 loss to the Washington Wizards
SLAM DUNK – Wizards coach Randy Wittman was asked before the game what worried him most about the Pistons and it took him about a half-second to spit out a very simple answer: “Rebounding.” He was particularly concerned about offensive rebounding, where the Pistons rank No. 2 in the league with 13.5 per game coming into Saturday’s matchup. That’s coming down a little. Washington actually grabbed more offensive boards than the Pistons, 9-8, and the real shocker there was that Andre Drummond didn’t get any. The Pistons are now 7-1 when they outrebound their opponent and 0-5 when they don’t; Washington outrebounded them 42-38. Drummond had his streak of double-doubles snapped because he finished with eight points and 13 rebounds – failing to score in double digits mostly because he got none of the easy points he usually collects by cleaning up offensive rebounds. The other glaring stat was the disparity in bench scoring. Washington’s second unit outscored Stan Van Gundy’s bench 51-15. Pistons reserves shot 6 of 20 on a night the starters were 30 of 59.
FREE THROW – The Pistons came out of Saturday’s game with a 7-6 record and while they’ll lament a few that got away, given the quirks of their schedule over those first 13 games they’re in pretty good shape. They’ve played eight road games and Saturday marked their fourth game when they were playing a back to back against a team off the night before. Washington, in fact, had been off since crushing Milwaukee on Tuesday night. The Pistons only have four more games over their final 69 when they’ll be playing a rested team while they’re on the second half of a back to back. They haven’t played any games yet where they’ve been the team with the scheduling advantage. The first such game for them will come next Sunday at Brooklyn. The Pistons play at Oklahoma City on Friday and will be off on Saturday while Brooklyn is playing at Cleveland. The Pistons play 10 road games in November, but only six in December and 14 combined in December and January. They’ll have a chance to make up some ground on the East’s leaders – and put some space between themselves and other playoff aspirants.
3-POINTER – Brandon Jennings keeps increasing his workload, playing full court four-on-four in consecutive days after Wednesday and Thursday practices and getting some more work in at Friday’s shootaround in Minnesota. Stan Van Gundy keeps saying “around Christmas” for his timetable, which puts it still a little more than four weeks out. It makes sense for Van Gundy to be cautious, but it also likely has something to do with the schedule. Because the Pistons began a stretch on Friday of 17 games over 29 days, there will be precious little practice time available to them. They will have a total of seven practices, in all likelihood, over that period, given the scheduled days off Van Gundy pencils in – as all coaches do – following back-to-back games. But after the Pistons play at Chicago on Dec. 18, they’ll be off until a back-to-back set at Miami and Atlanta Dec. 22-23. Even assuming Van Gundy gives them a day off on Dec. 19, they’d have two practices Dec. 20-21 leading to those games. If Jennings experiences no setbacks, that pre-Christmas trip could see his return.
