The Detroit Pistons began life without their star with a sloppy but decisive victory over the Washington Wizards 117-95 in Washington. Detroit was led by Jalen Duren with 24 points and got big contributions off the bench from Kevin Heurter and Caris LeVert, who both scored 14 points.
It’s fitting that the 50th win for the Pistons comes against the Wizards. On Dec. 28, 2023, these core Pistons hit their lowest point. Playing in their record-breaking 28th consecutive loss against the Boston Celtics,
the Pistons were up by 19 at halftime. It prompted then-Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma to tweet out, “At this point its like ‘dont be that team.’ ”
That team ended up being the Toronto Raptors in Detroit’s next game. Washington was Detroit’s next win, in fact, giving them a grand total of four wins on Jan. 15, 2024.
A lot has changed in two years. The Pistons tripled their win total last season from the season before, the first team ever to do so. This year, they got win No. 4 on Nov. 8. On March 19, they got win No. 50. Their first 50-win season since 2007-08.
They did it in this game like they’ve done it all season, with or without Cade Cunningham. They dominated inside and played hard-nosed defense. The Pistons outrebounded the Wizards 56-35, dominated the fastbreak 21-6, had 11 steals to Washington’s three and a 40-point edge in points in the paint. The only thing keeping the Wizards semi-close all night was a proclivity to shoot from deep, and they sank 15 of them.
How repeatable a performance like this when your opponent isn’t the Wizards remains to be seen, but it is clear that to weather a Cadeless storm, the Pistons will need to rely on the broad shoulders of Duren. He was unstoppable inside with his power face-up game, soft hands, and rebounding. Paul Reed, playing for an injured Isaiah Stewart, wasn’t far behind Duren. He scored 17 points in 20 minutes, including several second-effort baskets at the rim.
We also should spare a little digital ink for LeVert. LeVert’s season has been a small-scale disaster, and with Cunningham out, his missteps can’t be hidden nearly as easy. But now with a real and important role as a scorer and ball-handler, LeVert stepped up. He hit three threes and had six assists to go with his 14 points.
Huerter also looks more and more comfortable (but, man, I wish that three-ball would fall). The rangy forward made a lot of positive basketball decisions on both ends of the floor, and fit seamlessly into an offense that was working in fits and starts otherwise. You can’t always trust plus-minus, but I’d say Huerter leading the team with a plus-26 tonight matches the eye test.
It’ll be a while before we get a better sense of Cade’s return timeline. They get another quick test tomorrow in Detroit when they play the Golden State Warriors.
