On Saturday night, the Detroit Pistons entered their home game against the Brooklyn Nets shorthanded in the back court with injuries to both Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson that removed the two ball handlers from the lineup. So, the Pistons pivoted to a Marcus Sasser and Daniss Jenkins back court that had the game mostly hemmed up before a late fourth quarter collapse turned a casual victory into an untimely 107-105 loss for Detroit. 

At one point, the Pistons had accumulated a 23-point edge over the Nets while down two starters, but Brooklyn found their rhythm in the second half right at a crucial juncture where Detroit’s offense lost their connection. 

“We stopped respecting the game,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game.”You disrespect the game, it’s going to bite you in the *** and that’s what happened to us tonight.”

Bickerstaff opted not to mince words after the Pistons’ two-point home loss to a lottery squad in the Brooklyn Nets and instead chose a more direct path in describing what went wrong on Saturday night. 

“We just stopped moving,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s that simple. We’re not a team that should play a ton of isolation basketball. We have guys that are capable, but to our strength is when we move people around. When we are moving them around, we’re getting to the paint, we were spraying, we were creating open looks for one another, and I thought we just got stagnant.”

The Pistons’ narrow defeat marked the first time all season that they have lost three consecutive games. Given that the Pistons are now 62 games into the regular season, that’s a mark they are unlikely to reach over their final 20-game stretch before switching gears into the playoffs. 

Without Cunningham in the game to create opportunities for Jalen Duren, the All-Star big man had another impactful performance against Brooklyn, though it lacked the usual efficiency that JD provides with Cade in the lineup. Duren posted 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks for Detroit, but the big man required 19 shots to reach that level, far below his standard rate of efficiency. 

As for Sasser and Jenkins, the Pistons’ starting guard combo combined for 19 points and 13 assists between the two of them, which is a bit light in the scoring department with a few more assists than normal when compared to Cade’s normal night at the office (the All-Star starter is averaging 25.2 points and 9.8 assists per game this season). 

Bickerstaff also explained why he went with Sasser and Jenkins on Saturday night .

“Just trying to make sure we had enough ball handling, playmaking in that first group with both of those guys’ ability to bring it, handle it, their ability to pick up defensively, pick up full court, put pressure on people,” Bickerstaff said. “So, that was the idea behind it.”

The Pistons will look to put this loss quickly behind them considering Detroit has a road game against the Miami Heat on the ledger for tomorrow at 6 pm.

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