Pistons vs Philadelphia 76ers

Game Breakdown

*Special Situations*

• Pistons down 6 but game hasn’t gotten into a great flow yet with neither team really making a push which means it’s free for the taking for the Pistons….

  • Instead, they turn it over 3 times in a row (Cade, Ivey, THJ)

  • They have 6 turnovers in the first 9 minutes of the game….how many have just been awesome defensive plays or not self inflicted?

    • 2 offensive fouls, Cade bad read in PnR, THJ step on sideline, Fontecchio awful pass, maybe Ivey TO where Drummond swiped down and it went off Ivey’s leg

    • These cleaned up A LOT in the 2nd quarter

• Seems like such a small thing BUT I LOVE the end of quarter offense/defense substitutions from JB

  • Cade/Harris for Holland/Stew

  • Should have worked….Ivey with downhill drive and kick to Harris (missed corner 3PA), Cade OREB!, kick to Harris (missed wing 3PA)

• Sixers immediately cut into halftime lead getting it to 4….how does Detroit respond?

  • Cade mid post isolation draws double and Ivey knocks down C&S 3P

  • Harris block leads to Ivey transition and 2 FTs

  • Drummound OREB bucket but Cade answers with pull up 3PM

  • Harris transition post up for catch and immediate finish and they completely regain control

    • THESE are the type of Harris post ups I will sign up for (not the HC drawn out isolations, see below)

• Had all the momentum and lose it early in the 4th quarter as Sixers cut the lead to 10 after a Cade TO and JB calls a timeout…..how do they respond? (these are the “winning moments” they have not capitalized on so far this season)

  • Double Cade who gets it out to Harris and he knocks down a mid range jumper (big shot!)

  • Ivey TO but Cade runs back in transition and gets the block!

  • Sixers miss a couple layups….Detroit has to capitalize

  • Harris layup on a broken play (ball has bounced their way the last minute or so)

  • Martin corner 3PM (2PM), have to respond again

  • STEW OREB and kick to THJ 3PM!!! (2nd of these he has gotten in 2nd half)

  • Momentum regained

Pistons - 105 - 95 W

• Cade, Ivey, THJ, Harris, Duren

  • I know the Sixers are short handed but this was a MUCH NEEDED win for how this team has played to start the season and quite frankly, we have seen them lose so many games over the past few years to teams like this that were short handed

  • Harris and Duren switching all the 4-5 ball screen actions

  • I LOVE THIS STAT!!!!

    • Cade and/or Ivey have been on the floor for 97.9% of minutes this season….last year…..77.3%

  • 10:15 2nd quarter is a GREAT example of how much more in sync the defense is

    • Maxey breaks down the defense refusing ball screen, drives and kick into swing, swing

      • Help comes (Holland, remember this) and then great rotations from Beasley and Cade followed by the final rotation FROM…HOLLAND! Who goes from initial help in lane to closeout at the 3P line and cuts off the attempted dribble attack 

      • Possession ends with air ball from Lowry on contested 3PA

  • Love the action the run for Holland early in the 4th quarter

    • Baseline staggered from Holland-Cade bringing Duren to the ball to catch about 15 feet, Cade then immediately follow screens for Holland cutting along the baseline to the ball for the catch and finish

• THJ takes a charge to start the game???....okay, love it from the veteran

  • Follows with two FTs on ensuing offensive possession (1 of 2)

  • Does seem like they are hunting the switch of him onto Maxey

  • Seems insignificant BUT I absolutely love the weakside rotation box out he gets on Drummond mid 3rd quarter

    • He actually gets called for a foul BUT keeps Drummond from easy 2 points and instead Detroit gets to set their defense and they do get a stop

  • And funny how “the game” works…..guess who knocks down a contested 3P on the ensuing offensive possession

    • “The game rewards doing things the right way”

  • Heck of a shooting performance from him and made some impactful defensive plays

• DUREN ball screens continue to be very solid and I feel like he has less illegal screens than last season

  • Well….I guess I jinxed it as he gets one mid 1st quarter (live I thought it was bad call, fwiw….on replay, feel like they let it go if defender doesn’t fall down)

    • Willing to place some blame on Cade for going too early as well

  • Excited to see how he holds up on the DREBs vs Drummond

    • I believe HE SPECIFICALLY gives up the first one at 6:50 2nd quarter on the undervalued FT check out (this also results in Duren’s 3rd foul)

    • Has been really good on the OREBs BUT he then commits 4th foul immediately starting the 2nd half

  • Fouls out early 4th with another illegal screen

    • How does he respond against the Knicks? TOUGH matchup against the floor spacing KAT

  • Where did the FT% from last year go? Below 60% coming into the game and goes 0-2 on his first trip

• CADE 3P shot still looks flat coming out of his hand to me (fwiw, I have thought this about Keegan Murray when watching Kings games recently and most of his misses hit front rim)

  • Starts this game off cold after the fast start on Monday night

    • I LOVE THAT HE IS STAYING AGGRESSIVE FROM THE 3P LINE AFTER THE EARLY MISSES AND IT IS PAYING OFF

    • The jab step back over Drummond was nasty, and this after forcing the switch by snaking the ball screen

  • I do think we have seen more dribble moves through 5 games that have completely “lost” defenders than I can remember

    • 8:55 2nd quarter is ANOTHER example of this AND the left hand finish

  • I LOVE a couple of the transition decisions he made

    • Pushed initially but slowed down when he got to the FT line and then sprayed it out to shooters

• IVEY starts game with a confident, fluid looking C&S 3PM

  • Knocks down his next C&S attempt as well

  • Am very excited to see how he looks vs Maxey on defensive end

  • 8:10 1st Quarter is process I LOVE from him

    • Has a “decent” transition corner 3PA (and made his first one) but turns it down to attack off the bounce and draws a foul

    • First bad attempt is mid 3rd quarter and he has played so under control up to this point, I can live with that

  • Maxey is getting his BUT Ivey is making him work for it, there is no way he plays him this tough if it’s last year

• STEW 3P shooting, or lack of, has been a talking point for me BUT some of this is on him

  • 2:15 1st quarter he PnPs with space and doesn’t even look at the basket

  • Has had a couple productive PnR reps though

  • Again, shows his switchability with an awesome iso possession vs Maxey at the start of the 2nd quarter

    • Maxey does get him the next time in the 4th quarter

  • Back to back blocks on Oubre a few possessions later showing his versatility

  • Seems like he has contested a crazy amount of things in the lane/at the rim

  • He has had a heck of a game doing all of those “dirty work” things

    • OREB off Ivey miss that leads directly to Beasley 3PM

• HOLLAND staying this aggressive is a really positive sign to me, love that he isn’t losing confidence

• BEASLEY bouncing back a little bit here with two 3PMs

  • Of course, misses his next 3 attempts after this

• HARRIS struggles continue to start the game

  • I will say, I LOVE him “pumping up” the crowd after a make because of all of the boo’s he has been getting

    • Pretty sweet he gets to hit the ultimate silencer 

  • What are they doing with these continuous mid post isolations, they just don’t make sense when you have CADE AND IVEY on the court

    • TRANSITION POST UPS TO CATCH AND FINISH, YES!

  • Definitely going to be better defensively against bigger “4s” than ones that have any sort of twitch or explosion

  • Haven’t given him enough credit for his rebounding

    • Averaging 7 per game coming in and had 14 in this game that were all defensive

• FONTECCHIO continues to struggle to find his role and usage

Sixers

• Lowry, Maxey, Oubre, Martin, Drummond

  • Finishing 1st quarter with Lowry, Gordon, Martin, KJ Martin, Yabusele and there just isn’t a lot of offensive firepower with this group

• OUBRE with a couple TOUGH makes in the lane early

  • He has destroyed the Pistons over the past few years (seems like at least) and you have to hope we don’t see a repeat tonight

  • Not sure I love either call BUT have to give him credit for drawing 2 offensive fouls on screens when defending the ball

    • He REALLY plays these up

• MAXEY is just so good off the dribble with the jumper

  • He uses and re uses the screen or uses a HIGH screen to get into this

  • Now playing with great pace as he uses those ball screens and drawing fouls on the drive

    • He doesn’t get enough credit for the pace and nuance he plays with, uses his body to get into step backs, jails, etc.

  • This type of speed, pace, 3P shooting and floater game is just really tough to defend

    • The floater where he never puts his off hand on the ball is so nice and has amazing touch off the glass

• DRUMMOND, for some of his lack of mobility, is actually really active with his hands

• YABUSELE playing as the backup “5” for them right now with Embiid out and Drummond starting

  • 1 for 2 from 3 to start, hasn’t shot it well up to this point

  • Nice DHO keep and finish as well, he is massive

• LOWRY hands on defense have been awesome also

  • Think he has forced at least 2 turnovers in the first 13 minutes

• MARTIN IS BOUNCY!!! Wow on that block of Ivey

  • And the transition lob finish

• MCCAIN has done all of his work INSIDE the 3P line so far and got to the FT line twice

  • SUPER aggressive off the bounce attacking the lane, was not expecting this to kind of be how he attacked early in his career