11/26/25 5:00PM Pistons @ Celtics NBA Cup Group Stage Game 3

[papalawrence]

Tough game. Should have looked for more ways to expose their bigs. That said, when White plays like that they are a playoff team. 

[Sports_Freak]

31 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

literally, cannot win 'em all; even OKC could lose tonite; they won't; but they could

Exactly. And nothing says we can't start a new winning streak.

[NYLion]

JB's in game management is starting to rear its ugly head a bit and will even moreso against better teams.

He's playing Cade too much, Cade has looked exhausted down the stretch as of late. Jenkins, the way he's been playing, is the ideal type of PG to lead a bench unit and he's largely been phased out and now Levert is getting those minutes for some reason which leads to lots of individual play by the bench. It was fun while it lasted seeing those guys playing team ball. Also, why is Duren guarding Brown down the stretch and not Ausar? Why is Levert out there down the stretch? Robinson is playing too much as well. 

It's a 15-3 team so all is good now but I'm seeing some concerning signs with JB's rotations which shouldn't be shocking because this is his pattern with Cleveland and in the Knicks series last year as well.

[buddha]

teams hunt robinson and duren on defense.  switch them into situations where they have to guard quicker players.  it will happen even more in the playoffs.

[casimir]

This was a good reality check.  A close game to the end, something to push them a bit.  The streak was fun, and I agree that the schedule was lax and, along with so,e opponent depth chart issues, presented an opportunity for the Pistons to take advantage of things.  To their credit, they did.

It’s a better team than last year, but I’m not sure they’re top of the conference yet.  Still some questions to answer.   But they’re headed in the right direction.  The question is how do they keep that roster momentum going?

[Betrayer]

Regardless of the outcome, this was a fun, tight game and Cade put on a show.

Biggest takeaway from the game:
-3 is more than 2. You aren't winning when the other team is lighting you up from 3 (they shot 47%) and you're responding with 2s. That's just the reality of today's NBA. You have to crush them in every other aspect of the game to overcome it.

Smaller takeaways:
-You got a taste of what teams will do to Robinson in the playoffs. The Celtics ran multiple screens to get him on Brown and he cashed in over and over. Beasley and THJ were atrocious defenders as well so it's nothing new, but at some point we've got to find some 2-way players.

-Would like to have more minutes from Stew over Duren in the second half. The Celtics are a perimeter team and you needed Stew's defense out there. They were also taking away the lob pass, so Duren's offensive impact was neutered. He resorted to forcing it too much and turned it over 3 times which is unacceptable for a Center.

-I understand a coach's desire to reward guys who play hard, but this 11-12 man rotation ain't it. I want Jenkins running backup PG, but I'm not sure I like that small bench lineup either with Jenkins, Ivey, Lavert, Holland, and Stew. You have to figure out how to stagger it better. Maybe bring Stew in earlier at the 4, so you can sub Harris back in with the bench lineup when Duren sits. We've got to start doing that anyway because Stew needs more than 20 mpg.

 

That said, you can't complain about tying a franchise record 13 wins. 3 more tough matchups coming up, including a cup game and a back-to-back, so let's see how they respond.

 

[Deleterious]

They discuss Ron Holland.  The video should start where they begin talking about him.

 

[buddha]

i dont see much from holland other than defensive energy off the bench.

[Deleterious]

They say net rating is the best stat to tell if a team is good or not.  That top right quadrant is full of playoff teams.

I like the Washington Generals reference.  

 

[buddha]

2 hours ago, Deleterious said:

They say net rating is the best stat to tell if a team is good or not.  That top right quadrant is full of playoff teams.

I like the Washington Generals reference.  

 

which of those bottom quandrant teams arent tanking?

sixers, bucks, blazers, bulls?

kings arent intentionally tanking but theyre the kings.

 

[Deleterious]

2 hours ago, buddha said:

which of those bottom quandrant teams arent tanking?

sixers, bucks, blazers, bulls?

kings arent intentionally tanking but theyre the kings.

 

Sounds about right.  Add New Orleans.