Detroit Pistons: Daniss Jenkins Describes ‘Tough’ Bench Role After Career Scoring Night

Shortly after the Detroit Pistons announced that Jalen Duren would be out for another two weeks, the squad had the benefit of playing a Los Angeles Lakers group that was also without one of their stars on Sunday night. Luka Doncic was ruled out due to lower back tightness after dropping 53 the game before, which allowed Austin Reaves to torch the Pistons for 43 points in what was a 121-116 loss for Detroit at home. 

Early on, the Pistons were unable to generate any offensive rhythm and ran into immediate turnover trouble in the first quarter. Detroit point guard Cade Cunningham was at fault for a couple of those, but John Collins looked out of sync with the rest of his teammates. In all, the Pistons mustered just 14 points in the first 12 minutes of action, which quite clearly spelled trouble from the jump.

While Cunningham and Duncan Robinson were oddly quiet in the first half, the Pistons relied on their bench to inject some life into the Detroit attack. Once Daniss Jenkins saw a few triples go through the net, the back-up floor general kept taking the green light to let it fly from downtown and ended up with a career-high 31 points with eight conversions from long-range. 

”I just tried to move and play within the flow of the game,” Jenkins said after the game. “It just so happened that tonight it was threes. I just tried to keep moving. My teammates was finding me. I was open, and I was just stepping into it with some confidence, trying to let it fly.”

Once Jenkins started to light up the Lakers defense from the outside, the Pistons started to find open looks for DJ’s teammates, such as Kevin Huerter, when a comeback started brewing in the second half. Also as part of the reserve flight, Huerter put up 24 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and five blocks in what unfolded as a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter. Even though the Pistons were unable to close the distance, their bench made it a much closer game then the one-time 26-point Lakers lead would have had anyone believe. 

”You’ve got a tough job when you’re coming off the bench,” Jenkins said. “Whether they’re doing good or not, your job is to come in and either take that up to another level or bring a spark like we did. So, we just take pride in doing our job when we come off that bench.”

On the night, Cunningham and Robinson were the only Detroit starters to break into double-figures in the scoring department, though they totaled 14 and 12 points respectively. Outside of that pairing, the Pistons picked up just 23 points from the rest of the starting five, which underscored how futile the team’s offense was at times. 

Now standing at 6-3 on the season, the Pistons are still in first place of the Central Division, but they have a quick turnaround with the Washington Wizards in town tomorrow night for a 7 pm tip-off.