Ten observations from Pistons 104, Hawks 98 . . . .
- In their final game before the All-Star break, the Hawks sent a skeleton crew against the Pistons. Dennis Schroder (back), Ersan Ilyasova (shoulder) and Kent Bazemore (rest) sat. The Pistons countered with a group that still seems to be trying to figure out its identity in the wake of the Blake Griffin trade. Eventually Griffin was the catalyst: 13 points on 10 shots, 12 rebounds, nine assists. Somehow, the Hawks allowed offensively-deficient Ish Smith to score 22 points on 13 shots without even taking a 3-pointer
- The Hawks were scrappy and resilient against Detroit's backups and cut the lead to eight points with 2:51 to play, forcing Stan Van Gundy to send his regulars back in the game. The next four Hawks possessions: Taurean Prince missed 3-pointer, John Collins miss at the rim, two Prince free throws, Prince miss on a drive.
- Then the bumbling Pistons did their best to give the game away. Stanley Johnson inexplicably fouled Prince on a 3-point attempt and he made all three gimmes to cut the lead to 98-91. Then Smith fouled Malcolm Delaney on a 3-pointer and Delaney made two of three free throws to get the Hawks within 99-93. And then Smith fouled Isaiah Taylor for an and-1 to make it 100-96. Eventually the Pistons did just enough to escape with the W.
- With the three starters out, Mike Budenholzer's starting lineup included Delaney, Tyler Dorsey, Prince, Collins and Dewayne Dedmon. I saw Twitter jokes about tanking (and maybe it was) but that lineup isn't terrible. Three of those guys are legit NBA rotation guys (Prince, Collins and Dedmon) and the other two had been playing well lately. It's potentially a pretty good defensive lineup.
- But scoring figured to be a challenge for the Hawks without their three best offensive players and that's how it played out. The Hawks scored a season-low 33 points in the first half. For the game they shot 6-for-33 on 3-pointers and didn't earn many free throws until those weird final minutes.
- One of the two regulars in the lineup, Dedmon, had eight points on nine shots. The other normal starter, Prince, scored 14 points on 15 shots. Prince came alive late but hadn't done much to pick up the offensive slack until then.
- The fill-ins and deep bench players gave the Hawks their offensive punch, especially "two-way" wing Andrew White. He was not tentative in his NBA debut and scored 15 points on 11 shots in 16 minutes. Also good offensively: White (13 points on six shots, seven assists, three turnovers), Delaney (11 points on nine shots, seven assists, three turnovers) Dorsey (nine points on 11 shots, six assists, one turnover) and Collins (11 points on eight shots, 5 of 6 on free throws).
- The Hawks' starters ran out to leads of 5-0 and 10-5, even if their play was a bit scattershot at time. The Hawks had one three-on-one break that was comically bad. It helped that the Pistons were sluggish and disjointed. But the scoring dried up once the Hawks reserves started trickling in.
- Collins was giving up a lot of weight in his matchups against Griffin and Andre Drummond . The Hawks helped him with double teams and scrapes. With Ilyasova out, Miles Plumlee got back in the power rotation after two straight DNP-CDs. He did OK while providing some girth against Drumond and Griffin over 13 minutes.
- DeAndre' Bembry (six rebounds, three assists, a block and no turnovers in 14 minutes) looked alive in his second game back from the injured list. He served as the primary ball-handler at times and looked better doing it than he did during his stints pre-injury.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
