Cleveland — The problems always seem bigger after a loss.
And when it comes to the Pistons’ big men — and Jalen Duren in particular — there’s no shortage of opinions about what has gone wrong or what lengths J.B. Bickerstaff should go to if they’re going to fix it.
Saturday’s Game 3 loss in Cleveland only amplified all that noise, as the Pistons’ second-half rally sputtered down the stretch and fans understandably focused on Duren’s meager offensive production: 11 points, four rebounds and one assist in 29 minutes.
But once again — and this has been a recurring theme the last few weeks — that’s not where his coach’s attention went. Or so he says, anyway.
“It’s not points for us with him,” Bickerstaff insisted Sunday as the Pistons got back to work preparing for Monday night’s pivotal Game 4 at Rocket Arena. “I know people want to harp on that. But he just has to do the right thing. And I think he has done that.”
Not always, of course. Even Bickerstaff will admit there’s plenty of room for improvement from his 22-year-old All-Star center as Duren continues to feel his way through these playoffs.
We saw evidence of that a week ago, as Duren shook off a brutal start to the first-round series against Orlando and finished it looking more like the player we saw in the regular season. But while the last few games against Cleveland certainly haven’t resembled that early disappearing act against the Magic, the fact fans were clamoring for Bickerstaff to stick with his No. 3 center, Paul Reed, at crunch time in Game 3, still says something, doesn’t it?
Center of attention
At the very least, Detroit needs more than they’re getting right now in the paint and at the rim, which is where the Pistons typically do their best work. As Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson noted Sunday, “That’s their strength, their identity. And it still shows in the way Detroit has dominated on the offensive glass in this series, including a lopsided 17-5 margin in Game 3 that Atkinson deemed “unsustainable” if Cleveland hopes to advance to the next round.
“Just looking at what they’re saying, I think they still feel like they have control of this series,” Atkinson added. “They said it, right? ‘We’re good, we’re playing good basketball.’ Well, we gotta turn that narrative. We’ve turned it a little. But to really make this where they’re a little more aware of our threat, we gotta go get this one (Monday). Because right now, they still feel very confident.”
As they should, with home-court advantage still on Detroit’s side. And knowing they were perhaps a few costly turnovers away from burying the Cavs after that comeback from a 17-point deficit Saturday.
Still, given the way Cleveland’s star guards broke loose on the perimeter in Game 3, and with the way they held their own “down there wrestling with their guys,” as Atkinson said, the Cavaliers do have some life now.
“I think there’s always room for improvement, especially on the defensive boards,” Cavs center Jarrett Allen, who had just four rebounds Saturday, but finished with 18 points, including an emphatic dunk over Duren that was set up by Donovan Mitchell’s blow-by on Duncan Robinson. “We’re giving our best effort. But they’re are strong. They’re big bruisers down there.”
Yet if you’re watching the games you’ve seen how little the Pistons have accomplished with that advantage, at times. Cleveland actually has outscored Detroit in the paint through three games, and Saturday the Pistons shot just 50% (17-for-34) at the rim. That’s well below their regular-season average (67.1%) inside 4 feet.
Offensive struggles
Duren wasn’t the primary culprit behind that inefficiency in Game 3 — Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson were — but thus far in the playoffs he is having trouble replicating the dominance he showed around the basket all season. Duren became just the second player in NBA history to average 19 points or more on 65% shooting. But his percentage at the rim has dropped from 73% to 62% in the playoffs, and he’s at just 49.4% from the field through 10 games.
“I think you look at some of it and it’s a little bit of balance, where he can be a little bit lower and finish and be more explosive at the end,” Bickerstaff said Sunday, when asked about that dropoff. “I feel like he’s not as explosive at the end because sometimes he just gets standing straight up a little bit.”
As teams have focused their defense on eliminating the Pistons’ pick-and-roll game with Cunningham and Duren, taking away the lob threats and gumming up some of his short-roll opportunities, he’s struggling to create his own offense.
His turnover rate in the playoffs (21.5%) has risen markedly from the regular season (12.7%), and there has to be at least some measure of frustration or lost focus at play there, as Duren’s typically elite hands have fumbled too many pocket passes in the paint.
Saturday there was another play that stood out, too. Early in the third quarter, Duren had an early post-up chance in transition, yet instead of pivoting and attacking the basket with James Harden on his hip and Evan Mobley late with the help, the Pistons’ center inexplicably turned and opted for a mid-range fadeaway from 13 feet that clanged off the backboard and rim.
Still, when you ask Bickerstaff why he opted to go away from Reed the final minutes of Game 3, after he’d helped spark the Pistons’ comeback with 11 points in just under 10 minutes, he’ll reference history — “JD has done a great job for us all year long,” the coach said — as well as physics.
“His rolls and his ability to take gravity to the basket has opened up plays for Tobias or Duncan on the perimeter,” Bickerstaff said Sunday. “So if they make the decision that that’s what they want to (focus on), he just has to do the right thing. And I think he has.”
Again, that’s debatable. But there’s no debating this: Whatever he’s doing right, the Pistons are going to need more of it right now. Otherwise it’s going to get a lot noisier around here.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
@JohnNiyo
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Niyo: Pistons need Jalen Duren to finish what they started vs. Cavs
Reporting by John Niyo, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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