The Detroit Pistons were unable to contain Suns forward Dillon Brooks on Thursday night
On Thursday night, the Detroit Pistons found themselves in a strange position when they were decisively outgunned by a Phoenix Suns squad that was without their main scorer, Devin Booker, for the duration of the 114-96 loss on the road.
Without Booker to provide the perimeter shooting that he’s known for, the Suns more than made up for his absence with a 38% mark from behind the arc. Notably, Suns forward Dillon Brooks set a new career-high with 40 points in a thoroughly dominant display from the field, sinking 13 of his 22 shots on the night.
“I just got to my spots, stuff I work on every day and then kept going through it,” Brooks said after the game. “Guys kept feeding me the ball.”
Brooks held up his end of the bargain from outside with a 4-for-7 mark from downtown, and the Pistons were unable to contain his shooting threat regardless of who guarded Brooks. With Ausar Thompson, Ron Holland and Javonte Green all spending considerable chunks of time assigned to Brooks, the Phoenix agitator responded with a smooth jumper and an insatiable desire to talk trash mid-performance.
From a Detroit perspective, the Pistons were able to feed Jalen Duren early and often on the night. In a textbook All-Star-type performance, JD logged 23 points on an efficient 10-for-11 shooting night with 13 rebounds to give the big man another emphatic double-double to help cement his case for the mid-season exhibition game.
As for Cade Cunningham, who’s already set to represent the Pistons as an All-Star starter, the dynamic two-way point guard put up 26 points, seven assists and three rebounds despite an intense, swarming pressure from the Suns defense. On many occasions, Cunningham would drive to the paint, only for Phoenix to completely collapse around Detroit’s star with anywhere from two to four players turning their attention to stopping Cade in the paint. As a result, the Pistons struggled to find clean outlet passes to shooters on the perimeter, and even when they did so, Detroit only connected on 21% of their shots from distance.
The Pistons lack of success shooting from the perimeter highlighted a recurring problem for Detroit this season. Outside of Duncan Robinson and to a lesser degree Jaden Ivey, the Pistons lack a prolific, reliable outside shooter who can spread the floor and pull defenders out of the paint when Cunningham drives the lane. Players like Norm Powell of the Miami Heat could fit the bill, but Miami is not known to sell at the deadline so that move is far from a surety at this point. Still, the Pistons need help spacing the floor, especially when the postseason rolls around.
Outside of Cunningham and Duren, the only other Pistons in double figures were Tobias Harris and Isaiah Stewart, who posted 13 and 11 points respectively.
The Pistons fall to 34-12 on the season and will look to regroup before facing the Golden State Warriors on the road tomorrow night at 10 pm.
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