DETROIT — Depth being a feature of the Detroit Pistons’ roster is nothing to be surprised about at this point in the season.
As the Pistons have fought injuries throughout the year, they’ve had the pieces on their bench to continue getting good results. But even when Detroit’s starters are back in the fold, the Pistons’ bench continues to shine.
The Pistons lost a tight matchup with the Houston Rockets Friday night, but not for lack of another spotlight showing from Detroit’s bench.
The unit put up 49 of the team’s 104 points on 55% shooting and became the group to set off most of the key runs for Detroit. Even on a night where the East-leading Pistons don’t get the best out of their first five, the reserves keep building upon their impact this season.
“They played well all night,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the team’s “bench mob.” “They picked up the tempo, got out in transition, but they were generating stops also. From that group, everybody that was there contributed.”
It was a fairly underwhelming start for the first five on the court — featuring a returning Cade Cunningham after a one-game absence — but once the bench fully took over to start the second quarter they gave Houston a hard time on both ends.
In about six minutes together, the group of Isaiah Stewart, Jaden Ivey, Daniss Jenkins, Javonte Green and Ron Holland held a lineup of primarily Rockets starters to 2-of-12 shooting and erased an 11-point deficit.
The defensive ability was little shock as Stewart, Green and Holland are among the top defenders on the team and Stewart the best rim protector in the NBA.
But the lineup, which has rarely been used on an NBA court, started meshing on offense as well and shot 64% in the second quarter to bring momentum back into a game the Pistons had dragged behind.
Jenkins says that five-man lineup gets a lot of reps together in practice and has developed a shared mentality among the group that they finally got to show together on Friday.
“We’re energy guys. So we just try to get our spirit into the game and then everything else just takes care of itself,” Jenkins told MLive postgame. “We know our role and we know our job. We’re just trying to pick our brothers up whenever they’re lacking that.”
That influx of energy has become the standard for Detroit’s bench group, regardless of who is in it.
Over the last 10 games, the Detroit bench ranks top-10 in the NBA in points per game, three-point percentage, rebounding, assists and tops the league in blocks and steals.
The Detroit starters aren’t top-10 in any of those stats, with the exception of blocks and steals as the NBA’s season leaders in both categories.
There’s some good reasoning behind that as players like Cunningham, Tobias Harris and Jalen Duren have been absent for a handful of those games. But the bench group has frequently been the driving force behind a 7-3 record over the last 10.
“They’re getting better and better,” Cunningham said. “They obviously play with a ton of energy, the principle is getting better and offensively they’re playing a lot more connected.”
The starting five got the first big chunk of the second half to try and keep the strong play up after a halftime tie, mixing in Holland after Ausar Thompson hit five fouls early on.
But they went back down big and needed another run from their bench group in the fourth quarter to get a chance at a win. Stewart and Holland each posted seven points in the fourth and got Detroit as close as three points, but never broke through.
And with five minutes left and a long shift done, the Pistons went back to most of their starting five to try and complete their comeback, but the baskets never came.
The team went 2-for-8 from the field in the final five minutes.
Bickerstaff had to balance keeping his players fresh in what had been a very physically taxing game, while trying to get his best group on the floor down the stretch.
He considered getting the players with the hot hand back on the court, but the weight was mostly put on starters, though Jenkins got some run with the group.
“I thought that group that was on the floor fit the purpose at the time, what we needed to do,” Bickerstaff said. “And those guys had run a pretty long stretch, so you’re going to have to sub them out at some point anyway. But, those are always things that we consider.”
The loss ended a four-game winning streak, which was tied for the second-longest of the season for Detroit.
While defeats are never what the Pistons are looking for, it was against a playoff-caliber Houston team led by a red-hot Kevin Durant 32-point performance.
It just wasn’t the night for the Pistons, but the bench performance was another reminder of just how much that unit can handle, even against top talent.
Jenkins even took the opportunity to get in Durant’s face after sinking a corner three over the 15-time All-Star’s outstretched hand.
The Detroit bench mixes veteran defensive anchors with major contributions on both ends from some of the youngest talent on the team.
Their confidence only seems to be growing and they believe that’s going to be important as a team with lofty goals.
“The dangerous teams are the ones where everybody’s confident. Like why not you? Why can’t you have it on offense?,” Jenkins said. “It makes us more dynamic. The more guys they got to worry about...the more we can get each other making shots and playing confident offense, I think the better it’ll be for us.”