The Detroit Pistons team that will show up in the Smoothie King Center Monday night won’t be the same pushover the New Orleans Pelicans have dominated for the past 3-plus years.
The Pistons are no longer the worst team in the NBA like they were the previous two seasons.
They’ve turned things around after making changes to their front office, their coaching staff and their roster.
As a result, they’ve gone from a team that won just 14 games last season to more than doubling that win total this season. They are 37-31 and in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a reasonable chance to climb as high as a top 4 seed in the conference.
Not bad for a team whose struggles this time a year ago were even worse than this season’s Pelicans.
The Pistons hired former Pelicans’ general manager Trajan Langdon as their president of basketball operations. Langdon then hired coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who replaced Monty Williams after one season. They upgraded the roster and Cade Cunningham emerged into an NBA All-Star. But more importantly, they got better on defense, going from the team with the worst defensive rating in the NBA last season to ninth best this season.
They strive on toughness. These may not be your Bad Boys’ Pistons of the late 1980’s and early 90’s, but they aren’t the ones from the past few seasons either. Bickerstaff reminded everyone of that Saturday night during a postgame rant criticizing the officials after his Pistons lost to the Thunder.
“We understand that we play a style of ball that’s’ physical and on the edge,” Bickerstaff said.
So the Pelicans, who have won seven straight games against the Pistons, could have a much tougher time extending that streak to eight.
The Pelicans have had their troubles against physical teams like this.
You saw it in the playoffs last season when the Pels got swept in the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you’ve seen it this season in games against the Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic. The loss to the Rockets last Thursday prompted Pelicans’ coach Willie Green to call his team “soft” afterwards.
“The lack of physicality,” Green said. “We look soft. When we look soft defensively, we stop sharing the ball offensively. Do we do it every game? No. But those are the inconsistencies that we are seeing. …. We have to make decisions that we want to be more consistent in our approach, starting with our physicality. When we do, we’re fine.”
When they don’t, they aren’t.
The lack of being physical and having a bad quarter here or there is why the Pelicans have lost 13 game by 20 or more points. The latest such loss came to the Magic last week.
“I think it starts with the leaders of the team,” said Trey Murphy about not playing soft. “There was a huddle at halfcourt right before the third quarter (against Orlando) about testing our manhood. We’ve just got to draw a line in the sand. I feel like we showed a better effort in the second half.”
But to beat a team like the Pistons – or any other team in the league for that matter - the Pels can’t wait until the second half to show up.
They’ll have to bring it for all four quarters against a team they haven’t lost to since Valentine’s Day of 2021.
“I know we’re not going to accept softness,” Green said. “So whatever that means. I don’t know if I can instill it. But we just can’t accept that. We have to step on the floor and at minimum you’ve got to match their intensity and physicality and we’ve got to outcompete them.”
Green, a Detroit native in his fourth season as Pelicans’ coach, is 6-0 against his hometown team.
These Pistons though are better than the Pistons in recent years.
They are much tougher.
In order for the Pelicans to continue their winning ways against them, they’ll have to be tougher, too.