You ever wondered what it’d be like if the Motor City Cruise played against an NBA team?
Monday night was a good example.
The Detroit Pistons, without four of their starters, rolled into Madison Square Garden on a six-game losing streak. It wasn’t long ago that the Pistons had won two-straight games, which isn’t a lot, but for these guys, it’s kind of a lot.
That feels like forever ago.
The Knicks weren’t all that healthy either — down Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson — but that didn’t matter. When you’re playing Detroit, you don’t need to be at full strength. As long as you’re breathing, your chances of winning are prettyyyy good.
Donte DiVincenzo scored a career-high 40 points after hitting 10 triples while Josh Hart had a triple-double as the Knicks toyed with Detroit and cruised, I mean cruised, to an 124-99 win over the Cruise Pistons.
This was nothing like the last matchup between these teams — the controversial ending where Ausar Thompson was hit sticked at half court and the Pistons blew a late lead — but ti makes sense considering the lack of talent on the floor.
You can make an argument that the only Pistons who played tonight and will see more than a handful of NBA minutes next season were Jaden Ivey, Marcus Sasser, James Wiseman and Troy Brown Jr.
I’m not gonna belabor it because the kid has been going through one hell of a slump the last month, but Ivey was horrible tonight. He missed 12 of his 14 shots and finished with just nine points. With his jumper broken like it is right now, I don’t think you can rely on him to carry any sort of offensive load — and that sucks.
I’m just so conflicted with him right now.
I know the intangibles are awesome, and the athleticism and speed is unmatched… but there’s something missing. The on-court production just isn’t right. I dunno if it’s fit under Monty, fit with Cade Cunningham, the limitations of his game or all of the above?
The shooting has been a killer, though. If you remove his red-hot March, he’s shooting 29% from downtown this season. The jumper is nowhere close this month and for all the physical talents, it really puts a cap on what he can do. He’s just not a natural creator unless he gets a head of steam toward the rim and dumps off or swings out to the corner.
Teams don’t let you do that when you’re throwing up bricks from outside 18 feet.
Honestly, the Pistons organization has quit on the season. If they sit Cade and Jalen Duren down the stretch — which I think they will — it’s going to be a real litmus test for Ivey.
Some would say they’re giving him the keys to learn on the job like he did last season, but I’d disagree and point out that they’d be retarding his development by putting him out there with this abomination of a roster.
The laundry list of nobodies who played tonight is incredible. The likes of Malachi Flynn, Tosan Evboumwan, Evan Fournier, Chimezie Metu, Buddy Beoheim, Jared Rhoden are irrelevant. What they do these final 10 games does not matter for the Detroit Pistons.
It’s just for personal gain, tape for their agent to send to teams overseas.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The Pistons are a mess, a dumpster fire burning brightly into the night.
I don’t really know how else to describe it.
Troy Weaver talked about fielding a competitive team in February and March, not sitting guys and trying to win games.
Guess we’ll have to wait till next year on that, too.