The Detroit Pistons can't seem to find any consistency. After losing five straight games, they won two against the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, with a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks sandwiched in between. However, it was the back-to-back losses to the Charlotte Hornets that really sent Blake Griffin over the edge.
After losing to the Hornets for the second straight time, and the third time this season, the Pistons All-Star got extremely honest about the performance of his team. On a night where Charlotte rookie P.J. Washington was the best player on the floor, the Pistons couldn't seem to cool him down, which ended in 26-point performance for the rookie, and a 110-107 loss for Detroit. Despite being up eight points with just under five minutes to play, they couldn't hold on for the win.
"I think it's really light in here after a win," Griffin told reporters after the second loss to Charlotte. "To me, it seems like we love the victory but we don't like the fight. You're not going to win games like that."
The Pistons rank in the bottom half of the league in defensive rating, and allow one of the highest 3-point percentages in the NBA, which signals that this team just isn't getting it done on the defensive end of the floor. Whether it's miscommunication or lapses on defensive assignments, the Pistons walk away from nearly every game with a handful of bone-headed mistakes that cost them a win.
Before their game against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night, Detroit coach Dwane Casey agreed with Griffin's comments wholeheartedly.
"It's a good statement because it's true," Casey said. "It's true with every team. It's easy to shoot the 3 and make the ooh-ah plays. But you have to do the little things, to get the proper angle on screens, to make the proper pass out of the post, move the basketball."
Basically, the Pistons are falling into bad habits on both ends of the floor.
"All the little things, paying attention to detail in offensive situations, paying attention to detail in defensive situations -- Blake is exactly right," Casey said. "These are the things we aren't doing that can cost you a game."
Griffin's comments clearly resonated with his teammates, as the Pistons blew out the Spurs 132-98 to pick up their seventh win of the season. Perhaps Griffin lit the fire under his team to string together some wins, or maybe a meeting with the lowly Spurs was the exact thing they needed. Either way, Detroit still has a lot of work to do in order to pull even to .500 on the season.
