Betrayer

Let's play some trivia: Who are the Pistons top 5 defenders and disrupters? Easy answer: Ausar, Stew, Green, Holland, Reed. Which players played less minutes than usual? Yup, same list. Even in limited minutes that group had 7 of Detroit's 9 steals. Which players played more minutes than usual? Duren. Tobias, and Jenkins - all of whom were not playing well and should have lost minutes. The answer to the Magic making it difficult to score in the half court isn't to try to masquerade as a offensive team. We don't have the roster to be anything but a lottery level offensive team no matter who we put in there. And now the issue is worse because Orlando is scoring every time (as they did in the 4th quarter) and we have to go against their set defense every time. Complete backfire. You can't score in the half-court but you put in a lineup that makes you play in the half-court over and over again. The real answer is a defense that can get stops, steals, and rebounds and allow you to score against Orlando when they aren't set in their half court defense. This isn't new data. It's been this way for 2 years. The team is better on both offense and defense when Ausar is in the game. It's a fact. If the Pistons are going to come back in this series they have to address JB's lineups.

Not sure if the postgame I listened to was a complete video, but from what I saw not a single question was asked of JB or Ausar about his minutes. You have a top 3 finalist for Defensive Player of the Year and nobody who's job it is to ask questions thinks it's important to ask why he only played 25 minutes in Game 1 of the NBA playoffs? Insanity, incompetence, or trying to ingratiate themselves with the organization. You pick.

All of this plus more. Javonte only plays 5 minutes in this game even though he and Ausar were the only spark in the 1st half. He had 2 steals and was +4 on the court. Yet Tobias gets 36 minutes going 1-7 from three and 5-15 from the field with 3 turnovers and can't guard anyone. To make it more painful Tobias' missed threes were from the corners...y'know, the spot where Javonte shoots 50%. Stew with only 19 minutes in a game where JD is absolute garbage is a crime almost as bad as Ausar only getting 25 minutes. JD with 33 minutes and only 8 point and 7 rebounds. He had 3 turnovers, couldn't guard anyone, and was a team low -21. Meanwhile Stew was a +6 in his minutes. We knew this was coming from JB in the playoffs. Wasted a 39 pt game from Cade.

Any reporter who doesn’t grill JB about Ausar’s rotation should be fired immediately.

Masterclass in suicide by rotation.

Just terrible coaching. How do you kiss that challenge? Why sit Ausar when you bring in Stew? You can’t have 2 guys who can play D on the court at once?

Duren doing nothing on offense and terrible on defense. Give me Stew or Reed.

Tobias can’t guard anyone.

JB still killing us with his self imposed Ausar minutes restriction.

Ron’s not ready for the playoffs. Use Green.

Javonte and Ausar kept us alive in the first half. Ausar on the bench and Javonte hasn’t seen the court in the second half.

What a flop.

Wouldn’t mind seeing Reed in at the 4.

Playing poorly on both ends.

Ausar sits. Orlando run begins.

These free throws are killing us.

JB isn’t a strategist.

Not so sure. He’s an RFA so we have his rights. Let the market determine the value. Nobody else will offer him a max and nobody else can give him as many years on his deal.

Anyone still want to pay Duren big money this offseason?

Every time they get close they do something stupid to give Orlando another little run.

Ausar and Javonte keeping us in it.

Franz is such a flopper.

Love that block from Stew. Time to wake up.

The Pistons will win, but I'm not nearly that confident enough to call it a sweep. Orlando has a lot of issues, but one of them has been health. With their core together they're definitely better than an 8th seed. Like you said, we put teams on the line the most and they get a really good whistle - bad combination. They're also a big lineup which negates one of our strengths. Who does Duncan guard? Suggs maybe, but do you really want him on the point of attack? Also, Duren averages near 4 turnovers against the Magic, which is double his average. Orlando are reckless defenders. Every game I watch they're undercutting someone in the air or diving into someone's legs. As I said in the other thread, I watched Bane alone do both of those things against Charlotte. They're a dirty team defensively and I'm hoping we can get through this series healthy. On the plus side, Tobias seems to come alive against the Magic and Cade has had some monster games against them this year after struggling against them in previous seasons. You never know what Orlando team you're gonna get but I think this series will definitely go 5 and could easily go to 6.

A team led by this clown will never be successful.