Pistons’ Pick and Roll Too Much For Magic; Lose 128-118
By Zach Palmer
64. Final. 118. 38. 128
Brandon Jennings and Detroit’s big man duo of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond flummoxed the Magic all night as the three combined for 74 of the Pistons 128 points.
With a new pace comes new responsibility.
The Magic did not seem to catch that memo tonight as the Pistons dissected the Magic defense. Allowing Detroit to score 128 points on 52 percent shooting.
The previously mentioned trio of Monroe, Jennings and Drummond did the majority of the damage for the Pistons in the pick and roll. Channing Frye was constantly found lost in pick and roll coverage allowing his counterpart Greg Monroe to cut to the basket with no pressure and Jennings took full advantage of that.
Nikola Vucevic looked completely outclassed by his counterpart Andre Drummond tonight. Drummond muscled Vucevic (Vucevic scored only four points in the paint outside of offensive rebound putbacks) out of post and also disrupted the blazing Magic offense.
The issue for the Magic tonight was seemingly a simple one. Stop the pick and roll.
Stop the roll man? Stop the handler? Nobody on the Magic knew.
The only times Orlando made a run in this game was when both Frye and Vucevic were on the bench. Particular efforts that stuck out were given by Kyle O’Quinn, Aaron Gordon and Willie Green.
The frustrating thing with this team is that we have seen guys like Frye and Vucevic put effort into the defensive end before but it is not a consistent effort. Both want their offense to dictate their defense and that is not going to cut it for the Magic. Especially if they start both of those players.
Game Notes:
- Tobias Harris came back tonight and scored 19 points. So here is the problem the Magic face. Harris may have scored 19 but he also stopped the ball. Do you keep bringing Harris off the bench where his ball stopping is not nearly as important or do you put him back in the starting lineup?
- Aaron Gordon did not play very much and did not accrue a ton of stats but his presence was felt. Gordon may have been the best team defender for the Magic tonight.
- Ben Gordon may have fallen out of the rotation tonight. Six minutes played, all in the first half.
- Willie Green had an effective game tonight. This terrifies me because the last time he had one good game Jacque rode him for a month before realizing he’s not that good. Even more terrifying? He was playing point guard.
- Evan Fournier played his best game in awhile on both ends. He did a great job moving off the ball and attacking the rim.
- Victor Oladipo needs to remain on the ball defensively to be effective. He is very easily blown up on screens.
- At some point Jacque Vaughn has to stop talking about wanting his players to play tough and distribute playing time that way. Players like Aaron Gordon, Kyle O’Quinn and Dewayne Dedmon will go out there and scrap most nights. If Vucevic, Harris, and Frye don’t want to play defense then make an example out of them.