Off nights from Bradley and Harris sink Pistons in winnable game against Spurs

The Pistons lost a fun one on the road against the San Antonio Spurs Monday night by a score of 96-93. The game was one of those 50/50 games and while the Pistons were winning most of them earlier in the season, the last two have not gone their way. That’s the NBA for you and you can’t dwell on it. On to the next one. Now let’s get to some thoughts on the individual performances.

Andre Drummond

Decent though somewhat quiet game for the big fella. I’ll have to key-in more on Andre more when I re-watch some of the game. He made his fair share of quality plays but never seemed like his imprint was on this one whatsoever.

Avery Bradley

Shot zero-for-7 through the first three quarters, although he did lead the team in assists (four) up to that point. Got a tough shot to go finally in the second half, however that was it. A quick check of the box score shows that for the game Avery finished with a team-leading four assists. That’s not a recipe for success with for this team, obviously.

Anthony Tolliver

Got the start and played pretty solid defense when matched up on LaMarcus Aldridge, but didn’t offer much on offense, as he hit only 1-for-4 from downtown and finished with five points.

Tobias Harris

For the most part battled on defense and had good moments against Aldridge and Rudy Gay. Offensively, Tobias never got in a rhythm and finished 6-for-15. Although Tobias is vital for Detroit offensively, he shouldn’t be playing 40 minutes. That’s on Van Gundy. Tobias sure should have been fresher for the stretch run.

Reggie Jackson

20 first half points on 9-for-11 shooting. It was prime Reggie Jackson. In the second half Reggie could never really get anything going. He finished with 27 points, three assists and three turnovers in a whopping (for Reggie) 34 minutes. Reggie rarely plays more than 30 minutes in a game, so perhaps he ran out of gas in the fourth. It sure looked like he did.

Stanley Johnson

Came off the bench and gave the team a bit of a lift in the first half in the scoring and rebounding column. Hit a clutch three-pointer in the fourth and had some good defensive moments. Perhaps he can actually build off this game. With Bradley struggling in this one, no one would have been too upset with Stanley being a bit more aggressive. Finished with 14 points (on 10 shots) and 10 rebounds.

Ish Smith

Sure did get his shots up (10 in 14 minutes) - but some were very questionable selections, to say the least. Finished with 11 points and just two assists.

Eric Moreland

Played 11 first half minutes and was active as usual. Later on he drew a charge in the third quarter on Ginobili and drew another charge in the fourth. Scored his first field goal in three games.

Luke Kennard

After playing just two first half minutes, Luke got the call with over three minutes left in the third. He finished with just eight minutes of action and one three-pointer. I liked his confidence on all of his shots - just wish he could have seen more time to put a few more up.

Langston Galloway

Played nine minutes and shot 25-percent on four shots. He’s three for his last 17 from the field. You have to wonder how close Stan Van Gundy is to giving Galloway’s minutes to Kennard and dusting off Reggie Bullock and giving him those backup small forward / wing minutes.