The first zone of turbulence for the Pistons

Defense from Clips showed signs of weakness during the “trip” to the West. Returning home, to welcome Vruči, did not allow us to improve the situation, with another defeat, the third in four matches.

“We didn’t come to play. We took the meeting for granted, probably because we thought about three days of rest afterwards, so they came and hit hard.”, summarized by Ausar Thompsonafter this setback.

Averaging nearly 119 points over their last five games, the Pistons are clearly less sharp on defense, even though that is their main strength. And if Ausar Thompson and his teammates were looking forward to the upcoming three days of rest, it’s probably because they’re a little tired.

For such a physically intensive team, this is fundamental because if the intensity level drops, the whole machine works less.

“We have not evolved in our defense standards”admits Isaiah Stewart, who just was selected as the Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month for December. “We’re known for certain things defensively and we didn’t show that in the West and against the heat. We have to look in the mirror and challenge ourselves, each one of us, to become the best defensively. Our team is like that. We’re a defensive team first, and then that turns into an offense.”

As a result, the legs of the Michigan football players were heavy after the “trip” to the West, but against the Heat, efforts were made in the end to achieve victory. That’s right, even after the defeat, even if the tanks were empty or almost empty, JB Bickerstaff was pleased with the behavior of his group.

“I like the way, the effort, how resilient they are”greets the coach. “Things didn’t go our way, but we stayed the course, we found a way to come back. The players did a hell of a job staying in it, staying together and fighting through it all. The players should be congratulated for that.”

			Shots			Rebounds
Players	MJ	Min	Shots	3pts	LF	Off	Def	That	Pd	Bp	Int	Ct	Ft	Pts
Cade Cunningham	31	35:48	46.5	33.0	83.1	1.1	5.2	6.3	9.7	4.0	1.5	0.8	3.4	26.6
Jalen Duren	31	28:23	63.3	0	72.4	4.1	6.5	10.6	1.7	2.3	0.9	0.9	3.2	17.9
Tobias Harris	23	27:26	45.5	33.3	84.8	1.0	3.5	4.6	2.5	1.0	0.6	0.3	2.0	13.4
Duncan Robinson	32	29:34	42.3	38.1	78.4	0.3	2.5	2.8	2.0	0.6	0.8	0.3	2.3	11.6
Ausar Thompson	30	26:26	51.5	29.4	54.9	2.1	3.6	5.7	2.6	1.5	1.5	0.8	2.7	11.6
Isaiah Stewart	31	22:56	52.2	37.3	73.4	1.9	3.8	5.7	1.1	1.2	0.2	2.0	3.2	10.0
Three Smiths	2	11:00	75.0	0	71.4	2.0	3.5	5.5	1.0	0.5	0.5	0.5	1.0	8.5
Caris Levert	26	20:07	43.7	38.4	66.7	0.3	1.5	1.8	2.8	1.4	0.8	0.6	1.3	8.4
Ronald Holland II	32	20:41	41.2	24.4	79.4	0.9	3.0	3.9	1.5	1.3	1.4	0.2	2.3	8.2
Poor Ivey	19	16:06	46.2	39.3	80.8	0.5	1.5	2.1	1.9	0.9	0.6	0.3	1.4	8.1
Marcus Sasser	6	11:10	58.3	60.0	100.0	0.2	1.3	1.5	2.3	0.7	0.7	0.0	1.3	7.3
Daniss Jenkins	27	15:11	42.4	35.0	77.1	0.6	1.1	1.7	2.8	1.3	0.9	0.0	1.3	7.0
Javonte Green	34	18:56	43.6	33.7	76.9	0.7	2.0	2.7	0.9	0.6	1.2	0.4	1.6	6.7
Paul Reed	26	10:07	62.9	42.9	62.5	1.7	2.2	3.8	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.6	1.4	5.5
Chaz Lanier	14	9:43 am	33.3	32.4	100.0	0.4	0.6	1.0	0.7	0.1	0.3	0.0	0.2	3.2
Bobby Clinton	6	8:50	33.3	27.3	0.0	0.8	1.8	2.7	0.7	0.8	0.3	0.0	1.5	2.8
Isaac Jones	1	1:00 am	50.0	0.0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.0
Colby Jones	1	7:00 a.m	33.3	0.0	0	0.0	4.0	4.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	2.0
Wendell Moore Jr	3	14:20	50.0	0.0	0	0.3	1.0	1.3	1.0	0.3	0.7	0.3	0.3	2.0