The Pistons and Wizards play each other again, but it is after 3 days of rest for the Pistons and the day after a game for the Wizards because the NBA used Chat GPT to generate the schedule this year or something. This will only be the Pistons 3rd game in the last 8 days and their 2nd game against the Wizards.
The Pistons were able to control Monday’s game from start-to-finish, but the game was a little closer than it should have been because they had no answer for Anthony Davis. Davis finished the game with
44 points and only missed 5 shots total.
The Pistons will still be without Jalen Duren, so they once again may struggle to guard Anthony Davis. But, as Monday proved, even if they can’t stop Davis, they can still win if they stop the rest of the team.
Game Vitals
Where: Capital One Arena in Washington DC
When: Thursday, November 12 at 7 pm EST
Watch: Scripps Sports Network
Odds: Pistons (-10.5)
Analysis
There isn’t a ton more to say about this matchup that wasn’t very evident in Monday’s game. With Jalen Duren out, the Pistons have no solution to opposing big men with any kind of offensive skill that are over 6’10”. It seems hyperbolic, but it really has been the case. Paul Reed is undersized and John Collins is not a natural center. Tolu Smith has the size to possibly keep up, but he has proven to be out of his element pretty much any time he has gotten playing time so far.
The Pistons did opt to start John Collins at center against the Wizards on Monday and it did work out offensively, as he had a season-high 24 points. But, the aforementioned Anthony Davis was able to cruise to 44 points without much resistance. Anthony Davis always seems to have his best games against the Pistons and I wouldn’t expect him to hit a couple threes every single night, but a lot of the offense he was able to generate was off of offensive rebound putbacks or shots over the undersized players guarding him.
Surprisingly, the Pistons were only outrebounded 46-45, but they were outrebounded 14-11 on the offensive glass. If you watched the game, you could see the Pistons lack of size rear it’s head countless times. It is just the current state of things and something the Pistons will have to manage as best as they can for the next two weeks while Jalen Duren is still out with his hamstring injury.
The Pistons benefitted heavily from poor games out of Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George, which George in particular has been arguably the Wizards 2nd best player this season. Trae Young also had a poor night from beyond the arc where he shot 3-of-10. Some of that is because of how good the Pistons perimeter defense is and if the Pistons can replicate that tonight, it doesn’t really matter if they have nobody to slow down Anthony Davis.
AJ Dybantsa was able to get going a bit on Monday as he scored 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting. There were times where he looked overwhelmed, as he had 5 turnovers, but he showed why he was the number 1 pick and a building block for the Wizards. The Pistons have perimeter players to slow him down, but the refs were very whistle-happy on Monday which helped Dybantsa get momentum on his drives to the basket since the Pistons were not able to be as physical.
One small point of concern has been the play of Cade Cunningham over the last few games. He had arguably his best game of the season a little over a week ago against the Charlotte Hornets and since then has really struggled, especially from beyond the arc. He is 1 for his last 19 from beyond the arc after being close to 40% through the first seven games of the season.
He is playing more off-ball and getting clean looks, they just aren’t falling right now. Teams are obviously focusing their defense more on Cade, but a lot of the current issues are just due to not being able to hit his outside shots. Hopefully that changes tonight.
Luckily, Daniss Jenkins has been able to step up the last couple nights as he had a career-high, 31 points against the Lakers on Sunday and then 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists on Monday while starting. Given the success the Pistons had starting him along with John Collins at center, I would suspect that they roll out that starting lineup again.
There were some issues defensively, which I already touched on, but the offense was much better with Collins starting and more-importantly, it finally got John Collins going after his early-season struggles.
If the Pistons are able to replicate the game they played on Monday, they shouldn’t have a difficult time defeating the Wizards, but if they let one of the other players besides Anthony Davis get hot, the Wizards have a shot at the upset.
Lineups
Detroit Pistons (7-3): Cade Cunningham, Daniss Jenkins, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, John Collins
Washington Wizards (4-8): Trae Young, Kyshawn George, AJ Dybantsa, Anthony Davis, Alex Sarr
Question of the Day
Do you think there is a solution to the Pistons big-man struggles or do they just need to ride it out until Jalen Duren returns?
