Losing basketball like you read about.
Sometimes, you just get your ass beat.
Sometimes, the other team outplays you.
They are much better than how they played, even without Jaylen Brown.
They had won 12 straight against DET and all 3 this year weren’t all that close.
I have little complaints with how Tatum played.
Over the previous 3 games we’ve seen much more of a facilitator version of Tatum.
But to me, this is not a negative.
If that’s to be a primary scorer and be aggressive shooting the ball?
He can do it at an elite level.
- I’d say the same thing about Derrick White.
In those types of games, being able to still produce at an efficient clip from 3 is important.
You never, ever, have to worry about Pritchard’s focus/energy etc.
- That’s it though.
Outside of those 3, pretty much everything else was gross.
Let’s move on.
It wasn’t a big man issue, it was a perimeter defense issue.
There wasn’t any.
When you provide zero perimeter resistance, it doesn’t matter what your frontcourt situation is.
You’re going to get dominated in the paint/at the rim.
This game was a perfect example of what I mean.
It was even worse.
The Pistons finished with 62 points in the paint on 31-47 shooting (65%).
If it felt familiar, it’s because during their slump we saw a very similar trend.
Guys were not providing resistance on the perimeter.
If you’re not going to guard your yard, everything falls apart.
Against TOR, it was possession after possession of guys like Sam Hauser being attacked off the dribble.
This is sort of what I mean when I say the Celts were reactionary all night.
How many times did we see them allow a Pistons player to get a runway to the rim?
What, now the Celts can’t guard a simple high ball screen?
Get out of my face with that.
What do we saw all the time?
If you don’t defend, nothing else matters.
I’m not sure there’s a better example of that than this loss.
You should never lose a game in which you are that productive from behind the line.
Clips like you saw above.
Zero resistance defensively, not finishing defensive possessions cleanly and allowing OREB/2nd chance points, FTs etc.
And again, guys like Jrue, Al, KP all did not play against TOR.
It was mostly just cologne that covered up a dogshit performance.
The Celts weren’t playing well, they were making shots.
Their offensive process wasn’t all that great, guys just buried shots.
- He has to be sick as shit because this was easily the worst KP showing of his season.
What I love about KP though is he is ALWAYS accountable when he plays like shit.
Death by 2pt FG production, again.
To me, this is where Jaylen was truly missed.
6-17 in the paint?
I mean have some shame.
To start, 17 TOs is completely unacceptable.
That is exactly how you get yourself into this position.
The Pistons score 24 points off those 17 TOs, do we think that was important?
Tatum is too good and too important to be this careless.
He has the ball more than anyone, and with that comes a responsibility to take care of it.
The thing is, it wasn’t just a Tatum problem.
Make it make sense.
These are their best players making this pass!
I mean what are we doing here?
When you are this careless with the basketball, the Basketball Gods will always make you pay.
That’s just how it goes.
- Turnovers were just part of the issue around the margins though.
He just played like shit.
You have to be playable, especially when a guy like Jaylen is out.
He’s too good to play that poorly in my opinion.
- Right next to Jrue on the disasterclass list is Neemias Queta.
Queta, didn’t do anything.
Be playable, that’s the bar.
- I think we all saw why Xavier Tillman is not in the rotation.
I have no idea what the hell happened to him, but his dropoff is insane.
That’s crazy for a guy who looked decent enough in his minutes last season.
So at the end of the day?
Don’t play like assholes, and you’ve got the option to avoid situations like this.
