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Are you starting to get nervous about the Detroit Pistons?
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00:00All right, 8 o'clock hour is here. We're going to talk about the Lions coming up at 835. Taylor
00:05Decker out. What's next? And we'll do that at 835. But first, John, the Pistons. Is it panic in Pistons
00:13town as they've lost four in a row, including blowing a 23 point lead to the Brooklyn Nets? Terrible team.
00:19And getting run off the floor against the Miami Heat the very next night.
00:23JB Bickerstaff saying they didn't respect the game. Jalen Duren saying they need to lock in. What's your level of
00:30panic?
00:31So let's also throw on that. Jason Tatum's back and Boston is now only two and a half games back
00:38of the Pistons for that one spot in the Eastern Conference.
00:42I'm not in panic mode right now. You are allowed to have ups and downs throughout the course of the
00:49season.
00:49We don't love it that this is happening now with very few weeks. And I think maybe we've been trained
00:55by the Tigers to have concerns when it comes to this time of the year.
01:02But I'm not going to panic. I already last week watching them against Cleveland, watching them against San Antonio.
01:10And it was more when you watch them against San Antonio, it's more San Antonio than it was the Pistons
01:18and it's women Yama than it was the Pistons.
01:20A little concerned against Cleveland, but let's see them respond.
01:27Let's see what JB has in his bag of tricks to get these guys re-energized and playing good basketball
01:35again,
01:35playing for the entirety of the game, not just the first half, not just the second half, but for four
01:42quarters.
01:43I saw this yesterday reference the Tigers. It's a Photoshop. Oh boy.
01:47Jake Rogers, please let the Pistons get hot. Yeah, please.
01:50This is their longest losing streak of the year.
01:52JB Bickerstaff says the execution post all-star game. There's been slippage.
01:56Josh, yeah, we see it. Now, some of this is you lose Assar in that Spurs game, right?
02:01He is the tip of the spear. He allows them to be as elite defensively as they've been.
02:06At the same time, losing Assar Thompson shouldn't result in losing a lead like that to the Brooklyn Nets.
02:11And it shouldn't be a game like Miami where you're not even in it.
02:15So I'm willing to grant them that the Assar loss is noteworthy, certainly takes that elite defensive edge away.
02:23They still can't play the way they did this weekend without Assar Thompson.
02:27John, there's no timetable right now. If he misses a few more games, they just think they can't play that
02:31way.
02:32No. And so, but I will say this. All right, that's a tough stretch.
02:36It was Oklahoma City and Cleveland at home. And then it was on the road to Orlando.
02:41They won all three of those. And we know Cleveland wasn't playing.
02:46And OKC was a G League team. Correct. But it's still, you know, you're still getting up for those games.
02:52And then it was on the road to Cleveland, on the road at San Antonio.
02:55The Brooklyn loss, there's no excuse for that. And I thought the Miami one, I thought the Brooklyn one was
03:00probably the worst loss of the season.
03:02But now all of a sudden, hey, you get another shot at Brooklyn, which not that you need another shot
03:06at Brooklyn,
03:06but it should be a get right game on Tuesday. You got the Sixers who are, you know, in that
03:11play in range right now.
03:13Memphis, Toronto, a couple of games against Washington.
03:15It is a time where you could find your mojo, get your confidence back and get rocking and rolling again.
03:21There was something out last week, kind of workshopping it. And I feel stronger about it even today.
03:26The Pistons are a one-dimensional team.
03:30That dimension is elite defense.
03:31When that goes away, I mean, they're a one offensive option team.
03:36They've got to get stops. They've got to run in transition.
03:38When the faucet turns off on defense, they aren't that team anymore.
03:44I mean, they are one-dimensional. Now, to be clear, that one dimension has carried them to the one seed.
03:48That one dimension could win them a big playoff series.
03:52But it is a one way they can play to win.
03:55And if they don't defend, and they haven't, and the Assard Thompson injury is part of that,
03:58if they don't defend at a not good, not great, but an elite level, this team's not going very far
04:03in the postseason.
04:04And that's the concern, is, you know, have the rest of the teams, have they finally turned it on?
04:12Teams that got better at the trade deadline, that's Cleveland.
04:15Teams that are more experienced, they're more veteran teams, they're getting closer to the postseason,
04:22they're getting healthy, Jason Tatum's back in Boston.
04:24Are they just simply getting better?
04:27And the Pistons are just where they were for the entirety of the season.
04:31And all the other ones have, they've turned it on.
04:35They have an extra gear.
04:37Yeah.
04:37So Tatum scored 20 in 27 minutes.
04:39They played at Cleveland.
04:40They won the game by double digits.
04:42Yeah, and over the weekend, they said, hey, no minutes restriction, he's good to go.
04:46They're only two and a half games back.
04:47I mean, the Pistons could lose the one seed in a week.
04:51So, yeah, I mean, there's a level of panic from that standpoint.
04:55Sure.
04:56That if Detroit doesn't get the one seed, their path could be playing both Cleveland and Boston.
05:02And you say Cleveland maybe hasn't hit their stride.
05:06Cleveland has a lot further to go, but it's about playing really good basketball in the playoffs.
05:10Yeah, and again, do they have an extra gear?
05:11I mean, I'll always question how Harden's going to play deep in a playoff series.
05:15But adding him, and they've played better since, they have another gear.
05:20If those two teams hit their extra gear and the Pistons' one-dimensional defense-first basketball doesn't show up,
05:27they will get popped much earlier than we had considered.
05:30And that's why you wonder, do you start walking back what we thought this team was going to do this
05:33season?
05:34Right, because that extra gear, where are you going to find that little extra juice, that extra gear?
05:38Because Jalen Duren had 24 points, Cade had 26, had 10 assists.
05:44But then you look at everybody else and, okay, Isaiah had 14, Paul Reed had 10,
05:49and a whole lot of twos, threes, fours after that.
05:51Like, there's just no one to turn to that can go.
05:56I mean, Kevin Herter was 0-4.
05:58Well, you know who they're going to be turning?
05:59Well, sure, I'd love the guy they added at the deadline to be the guy.
06:03Ron Holland.
06:04I mean, in the absence of Asar, this is kind of his opportunity to spread his wings.
06:07It's a little bit like Casper with the wings if Larkin's out for a while.
06:10Like, you're a young player, man.
06:12This is your opportunity with bigger minutes, a big spotlight.
06:15Go out there, and you're going to have to, again, be a force on defense and knock down a couple
06:19shots.
06:202-4-8-5-3-9-97-97.
06:23John, we got people using the F word.
06:25Uh-oh.
06:26The Pistons might be the biggest one-seed frauds in NBA history.
06:31We've seen one-seeds lose to eight-seeds.
06:33Come on, people.
06:34Well, okay, but I'm also not going to sit there and say,
06:36I'm concerned about them losing to an eight-seed.
06:39As well as Charlotte's play, that would be the tough matchup.
06:42Right.
06:44And I don't know you can go through the season, earn the one-seed, and be a fraud.
06:49Now, this year is a little bit different because Halliburton's not playing.
06:53He's not coming back for Indiana.
06:55Even if he did right now, they're completely out of it.
06:57But Jason Tatum is coming back.
06:59They got better, and it wasn't just a trade deadline acquisition.
07:03Cleveland got better because they at James Harden, and they're just playing better.
07:09Yeah.
07:10Guys, there's no panic because I've seen the cracks forming for weeks.
07:14Now the dam is finally broke.
07:16I fully accept this team is going to finish as the three or four seed gets swept in the
07:20first round.
07:21Oh, they're not going to finish as a three or four seed.
07:23I mean, it's as much as Cleveland is playing better.
07:26They're still six and a half back.
07:28With less than 20 games to go now.
07:31Yeah.
07:31And the Knicks are in the three seed right now.
07:35And there's, I wouldn't even, I put the Knicks, the top three teams, Detroit, Boston, and Cleveland.
07:42The Knicks are the next tier down.
07:44Yeah.
07:44And, okay, I'm even going to play along with this.
07:46Let's say they did fall to three.
07:49Who would they draw in the first round?
07:51I'll let you do the math on that one.
07:53Well, my point is, I think they would win that series.
07:57I mean, you could say that they're not Boston with healthy Tatum, but to say that they couldn't
08:01beat the Raptors, the Raptors, the magic, you know what I'm saying?
08:06Like, yeah, I think that's a leap that I'm not just, I'm not willing to take that leap.
08:10This team should win a playoff series.
08:12This team with the right seating should win two playoff series.
08:16And I'm done saying should after that.
08:18But the problem with that comment is with the right seating.
08:21And if they fall out of the one seed.
08:23Yeah.
08:23Now, all of a sudden you start to take the tumble.
08:25That's why you look at the, at the schedule.
08:27It's, it was a tough road for about, you know, for two weeks and it starts to ease up a
08:31little
08:31bit.
08:31And this is where they've got to put some distance or at least keep that distance at two
08:36and a half.
08:36And I'm looking over here to always even keel Tom Millican, who has, I'm not sure about
08:42that sarcasm, but you may have thread the needle perfectly on this.
08:47You were more optimistic preseason than us.
08:49We believed things that, that seemed to be taking a step back and they might be where
08:55you've said all along, which is a second round playoff team.
08:58They've adopted this grit mentality and they show up and they try virtually every night.
09:03I don't know about last night, but it's going to win you a lot of games in the NBA.
09:07And I felt like they had a superstar on their team, but they don't have a number two and
09:12it's starting to get exposed during the three.
09:16So look, I thought Cleveland was going to be a problem.
09:20I anticipated Tatum coming back, not this early, but I thought he would.
09:24And I was already fearful of the Celtics before that.
09:28Like, I just think the way they play basketball is the way it's supposed to be played in the
09:32NBA these days with the three point shooting.
09:34The Pistons are trying to do, you used to thread the needle.
09:37They're trying to thread this needle into doing it the opposite way.
09:41I think that only gets you so far.
09:43A texter kind of put it that way.
09:44It's the try hard thing can only take you so far.
09:48If you don't have somebody that can make a shot besides Cade Cunningham, you have a problem.
09:52And I would even say a little bit, I am concerned that they may be an easier matchup for teams
09:59than last year because of no...
10:03Easily.
10:03So it's funny.
10:04I was going to make a football comparison, apples to oranges, but Bill Belichick's defenses
10:08were always known for trying to make the other team play left-handed was a way they would
10:12phrase it, right?
10:13Like, you can't play your way.
10:15What if in a seven-game series, the other teams force the Pistons to play left-handed?
10:21That becomes really tough for them to pull off.
10:23If they don't get the transition buckets, if Cade doesn't have the ball, can you win four
10:29times in a seven-game series playing left-handed?
10:32Whereas Boston, okay, hey, we can smother Brown.
10:36Well, here's Tatum.
10:37Or in the case of Cleveland, if Spider Mitchell is having a rough day, James Harden could
10:41pour in 35 on a given night.
10:42They can play left-handed better than the Pistons can.
10:45You said it.
10:46They're one-dimensional.
10:47They are.
10:48Therefore, they're an easy matchup.
10:50They're easy to prepare for.
10:53Take an inventory.
10:54Four straight losses.
10:55Longest losing streak of the season for the Pistons.
10:57Level of panic.
10:58Panic in Pistons town.
10:59It's 97-1.
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