Betrayer

And there’s another turnover.

Clean up the unforced errors and you’re up 15 easy.

Reed taketh and Reed giveth away.

A tough defensive start and a ton of turnovers yet you find yourself up by 7 after the first. Could’ve been a double digit lead easy. Knicks were 0-8 from three as well which won’t continue, so you gotta clean it up.

6 first quarter turnovers already. Rough.

Exactly. This is Ausar’s role and he’s generally elite at it. I don’t mind throwing different looks at Brunson but Ausar gets the primary. If you want to try something crazy you could put Ausar on Hart so he can be the roamer rather than Duren, but then you have Cade or THJ on Brunson and Duren on KAT. Not sure that’s the answer.

Too many mistakes already with blown layups.

I know a lot of teams do it and Duren can’t guard the perimeter, but I really don’t like the Tobias on KAT matchup.

Offense is holding serve but the defense has got to improve. It’s been really bad to start this game.

Game 1 looked a lot like early this season when they were still learning to close out games. Yes, they blew the lead in the 4th and that sucks, but this is what you expect from a young team with no experience in the playoffs. You have to pay those dues and they're paying with house money in a season where everyone expected them to max out as a play-in team (if that). Can they learn fast enough to win tonight and make it a series? It's a tall order, especially with Stew out. I predicted Knicks in 6, but without Stew that might even be asking too much. If he can't make it back for this series you might be looking at Knicks in 5 (we have to break that playoff drought!). Curious to see how Duren responds. He had an awful first game and I kind of expected that because this is what happens to the Drummond archetype in the current NBA - opponents simply box-out in meaningful games and you don't get the easy slop you've been feasting on in the regular season. Without that, if you can't defend at a high level or shoot from outside what do you provide? I think this series will tell the Pistons a lot about what they should feel comfortable paying for him in the off-season.

Overall, these were some bad play-in games.

Glad Memphis came back to make it a fun game to watch. Atlanta on the other hand...ugly.

Lost me at "SGA is MVP".

Interesting because that's exactly the reason I would use last year. The main thing that changed was the coach, illustrating his impact on what most people called "the same roster" at the start of the season, with no All-Stars added.

The Season and CotY This was an incredible season that nobody expected. Over/under was around 24.5 and they beat that by about 20 games while being the first team in league history to triple its win total. They did that without adding a single All-Star and with their 2nd best scorer out of the lineup. Every other team that has improved this much in one season has added a hall of fame player. If you told anyone before the season that the Pistons would top 40 wins they'd have laughed you out the room. That's why JB gets my vote for CotY. You could have told me OKC or Cleveland's record and I might have raised an eyebrow but I wouldn't have thought you were crazy. What those teams accomplished was great, but nobody did the unfathomable like Detroit. Problem is, NBA narratives don't change easily (see Cade's rookie year) and everyone already anointed Atkinson before CLE fell off a bit and the national media started to recognize the Detroit story. Still, I'm fine if JB doesn't win the award because we don't have a great history with former CotY's and I like them having the chip on their shoulder anyway. Either way, I really hope everyone enjoyed this season, because this was the "fun" season where they were playing with house money. Next year there will be a lot more expectations, criticism, and serious conversation around taking that big leap to contention. You won't be able to just watch a game and enjoy it as much as this. As someone who's watched every Piston's game for over 20 years, this has been the most exciting season for me since the Going to Work era. I never believed in those Drummond teams and struggled to get too excited about a team that I knew was capped at the 8th seed. This feels way different. The Playoffs I'm definitely looking forward to the playoffs, even if all they do is just break that win drought. As I've been saying for a while, it'll be 5 versus 9 (the 5 Knicks, the 3 refs, and Adam Silver), but they still have a good shot at getting 2 games. 3 games would be outstanding and winning the series would just be mind boggling after where they were last year. Do I think they could do it? I don't think it's a high percentage chance and everything would have to click perfectly, but the fact that there's even the smallest chance makes this different than any playoff appearance we've seen here in almost 2 decades. My prediction is 4-2 Knicks with Brunson living on the free throw line.

Bunch of scrubs out there, but it was a really fun game to watch. Couldn't believe they tied it up at the end with some crazy shot making.

Quick correction: They did crush the Pacers on November 29th during the in-season tournament. Although you're right in that the Pacers won the other matchups and the Pistons went 3-1 against the Knicks. I think they'd like a Knicks matchups in the first round and so would I. Problem is, the Pacers could still move into 3rd and push the Knicks down to 4th, so these next couple of games could push it either way regardless.

I was really glad to see JB be flexible in his rotation and go with Stew. KAT went 2 for 7 against him (29%), which means he was 8 for 12 against Duren (67%). If we get the Knicks in the first round, you have to ride Stew against KAT and Duren versus Robinson. The opposite matchups would be a nightmare on both counts because Duren can't guard KAT and Stew is going to struggle to keep Robinson off the glass with the size difference. Also happy to see Fontecchio didn't get any run in the 2nd half and only played a handful of minutes in the first half. In the playoffs his minutes should be eliminated completely. He's been trash all season and it's looking like last year was the anomaly, not that he's just having a down year this year. In '23 he shot 33% from three and this year he's shooting 33% from three. His 40% last year was like Frank Jackson's fool's gold from 2021.

The "continued progression of court work" means that he's not yet cleared for full 5-on-5 play and likely that's several weeks away. I still don't expect to see him this year.

I love when super-teams fail. Which team will KD go to that will suddenly crumble from inside next year? Let the bidding begin!

You're not the only one. Looks like something the Grizzlies rejected. Also, yes, the red ones are the best. The Going to Work era red jerseys were my favorite during that time as well.

I'm glad we won't be facing the Bucks in round 1.

This entire NBA season has been so weird with the Luka trade, the Grizzlies firing their coach, and now the Nuggets cleaning house. Who fires their coach and GM when they're the #4 seed going into the playoffs in two weeks? Insanity.

Tobias is greatly missed. Partly because he does a lot of important things on the court for this team. Partly because without him they don't have a single other PF on the roster and Simone has been absolute trash this season. Ausar was +13 in his minutes and that matches the eye test. You could feel the difference when he was in the game. Starting Schroder and riding him for 30+ minutes is a bad idea. He's just too small and he can't shoot (29% from 3), yet he's far more willing to take shots he shouldn't. He's here for one reason - so you can run the offense when Cade is on the bench. For now I'd start Holland and get him some experience. It feels like we're basically locked into 6th at this point. You can tell they're resting guys and not actively pushing for the 5th seed and the Indiana matchup. I don't like the negative momentum going into the playoffs, but other than that I'm fine with making sure you're healthy. I'd rather have the Knicks anyway. I don't think they'll win either series but the Knicks are a slightly better matchup and at least your big playoff splash doesn't get pushed to NBA TV.

Hali is the least of my fears when it comes to Indy. It's Siakam, Turner, Carlisle, and (surprisingly) McConnell that worry me.