With Cade Cunningham and Marus Sasser out of the lineup on Friday night, Daniss Jenkins had a heaping plate of responsibility against the Golden State Warriors.
Once Detroit Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham was ruled out for at least two weeks due to a collapsed lung on Thursday, the Eastern Conference’s first place squad quickly shifted to a Daniss Jenkins-led attack for their game against the Wizards later that night. Jenkins struggled from the field with an inefficient 3-for-16 outing, so the second-year guard was looking to quickly turn the page on Friday night against the Golden State Warriors.
However, the Pistons needed Jenkins to do more than just replace Cunningham last night, which is really a fool’s errand on its own. But Detroit was also missing Marcus Sasser and Kevin Huerter for their cross-conference matchup with Golden State, so Jenkins’ importance ratcheted up to another level, and the speedy two-way guard turned in an impressive 22-point, eight-assist bounce-back performance in Detroit’s 115-101 win.
“My energy fuels my game, so if I keep my energy right, I dominate on the defensive end, then my offense just picks up off of that,” Jenkins said after the game. “I’m just trying to make up for our brother down, man. Stew's down, Cade's down. We’re just trying to show everybody that we can control the ship until he gets back.”
Given that response, Jenkins obviously felt the weight of his added responsibility against the Warriors last night, but the former G-League standout accepted the challenge and turned in a dynamic two-way effort that contributed mightily towards the Warriors’ 26 turnovers. Of course, Ausar Thompson was a standout in that regard with seven steals of his own, but Jenkins was engaged on defense and helped force Golden State into errant passes all night long.
But as a playmaker, Jenkins worked seamlessly with Jalen Duren to punish the Warriors in the paint. Duren finished the double-digit victory with 23 points, and Detroit outscored Golden State in the paint by a 30-point margin. To accomplish that stark mismatch down low, Jenkins had to manipulate the positioning and spacing of the Warriors defenders within the framework of Detroit’s half-court offense, and Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff broke down what that looked like against Golden State.
“Our offense, obviously without Cade, has to be diverse,” Bickerstaff said. “It has to be consistently ball movement, body movement, forcing the defense to have to guard five guys on the floor, everybody be a part of it, attack from different angles, attack from your strength, but they put two on, you find an advantage. You have to hit the advantage every single time, and that’s what our guys have bought into.”
Bickerstaff has deputized Jenkins to carry out the principles of Pistons basketball while Cunningham is sidelined, so Friday night’s performance should be helpful in building some momentum for the second-year guard. The Pistons still have a four-game lead over the Boston Celtics for first place in the East, but the Atlantic Division squad is surging with the recent addition of Jayson Tatum, so it will be important for Jenkins to stay sharp over the next several weeks.
The Pistons will likely need to fight to keep that four-game lead since their schedule includes big games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder and two against the Minnesota Timberwolves before concluding their regular season slate.
After today, the Pistons have one more day to rest up before hosting the Lakers for a 7 pm tip-off at Little Caesars Arena on Monday, March 23.
For more information on the latest Detroit Pistons team or player news, follow @EricJRutter on X for continued basketball coverage. Also be sure to look up Roundtable - Michigan Men Media on Facebook for continued social media coverage of all the sporting teams in the Mitten.