Betrayer

Defensive effort across the board has been better this year. Even poor defenders like Beasley and THJ are at least giving effort on most plays. Pistons have the 14th ranked defense in the league. If you would have told someone that before the season started, they'd have said you were crazy, especially after the Pistons brought in mostly shooters and weak defenders to shore up the offensive spacing. Coaching matters. JB isn't elite, but his teams play defense, his rotations usually make sense, he works the refs, uses his challenges, and I've seen some nice in-game adjustments here and there. Night and day from Monty "The Terrorist" Williams.

But wait, I thought consensus on here was that Donovan Mitchell wasn't a good player? 🤣

The good news is this is a different team than last year. Outside of the Knicks game, they've been in them all, even the ones against very good teams like Boston and Indy. Definitely makes it more fun to watch (and more painful when they lose close ones). Hopefully this is the loss that puts us in the right draft spot to get a #1-3 lottery ball while Charlotte drops, lol.

There was also some nice tripping by Charlotte to take out one of our defenders and leave us scrambling.

No. Not again please.

Wow. Gutsy play by Holland. Too much time left for Ball to be a hero.

You knew Ball would show up at some point. Figures it had to be the last 2 minutes.

Cade with two triple doubles in a row.

Why is Tobias still the strong side outlet in the corner? He’s been broken this year. Put someone else in that first pass outlet position.

Ivey back in the game.

Knee directly to his shin bone. Hopefully just a bruise.

Just as you say that…

Pistons treating this game like they can just win it later. That’s a recipe for a loss.

Bad call. Contact by Cade was clearly before the shot.

Ivey really struggling to finish tonight.

Yep that’s what I was worried about, especially with his history of missing multiple weeks for each ankle injury and coming back looking like he’s afraid to test it again.

This game really shouldn’t be tied right now. Feels like the Pistons have made a lot of dumb mistakes and took bad shots on the offensive end, throwing away possessions.

Looks like he’s alright. Hopefully it doesn’t swell and cost him any games. Cade just getting to the hoop at will early on.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Duren goes down with an ankle injury right when the pistons look like they might be improving.

Hmm, looks like Fanduel Sports Network carries it and offers a 7 day trial. I'll give that a go.

What does this mean?

League Pass. They consider Raleigh local to Charlotte apparently so I can't watch any games involving the Hornets - home or away - until 3 days after the game.

Ugh, can't watch this one until the 9th because I live 3 hours from Charlotte. Stupid blackout rules.

Well, that was fun! I do love watching the Lakers lose, especially to us. Rough shooting from 3, Cade was off, and yet they still found a way to win this game. Solid defense, good effort from the bigs, and we even saw Cade hold his own guarding Lebron for a long stretch. Holland’s probably reworking his shot with Vinson, but other than that he played really well. Even took AD off the dribble for a nice finish. Ivey was clutch in the 4th. Love how JB has him in motion against a bent defense with Cade making plays and feeding him on the move After near wins against Indy and Boston, this was a big one to hold the lead and close it out.

Beat the teams you should beat. Last year's team loses this game on the road by double digits. It wasn't a pretty game, especially in the first half, but they got the job done. Harris had a nice game and Duren gave good effort on defense (in the 2nd half). Stop me if you've heard this before but turnovers are a real problem.