In their first game without Delon Wright for the next few weeks, the Detroit Pistons lost its firm presence.
Dennis Smith, Jr. started in his place and fought heavily out of a few sunken perimeter shots in a 30-second explosion. Its characteristic athletics remains more theoretical than functional, which is not very surprising, given some injuries. He can go into game form and show what made him a lottery choice, but he was visibly absent tonight.
Saben Lee enters.
Lee’s quickness gave Magic’s defensive attacks and generated numerous opportunities for his teammates. He ended the game with 12 points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals, ending with the best of the team +3 plus-minus. In this case, the box score accurately represents the great impact of the two-way player in the game.
Oh, and he again tried to end a career at the edge:
Unfortunately, Lee’s excellent effort was not enough for the Pistons to fully recover from some deficits in the first half.
Orlando built his lead on Evan Fournier’s hot kick (which ended with 29 points out of 15 shots) and noticed Pistons killer Terrence Ross, but they won the game because of All Star wannabe Nikola Vucevic.
Vucevic scored 37 points, grabbed 11 points and did so without much resistance. This is not necessarily a criticism of Detroit’s defense of him – he just had one of those nights when there is nothing you can really do against him.
Detroit couldn’t come close to matching Vucevic’s performance.
Jerami Grant scored 24 points in good efficiency and was as solid as ever. Josh Jackson added 17, but did so when attempting 23 shots. Being pushed into a bigger creative role, Jackson pushed too hard and got stuck in a lot of traffic without a plan to leave. A more prominent offensive role will need to happen for Jackson during Wright’s absence, but the results of the first game were not there.
The defeat for Magic was a great reminder of how difficult things can be for the Pistons when shots are not falling and they don’t have a main creator. Dwane Casey and company will need to fabricate more attacks for their younger members. Detroit will see Orlando again on Tuesday, which will be a good test of whether the correct adjustments can be made.