Official Game Thread: Hawks at Pistons

[lethalweapon3]

“MOTOWN FEELING BACK A—what, Joel? That’s not how the song go?”

 

Surname change! For the time being, it’s Cade Coming-on.

It’s a small sample size, but Cade Cunningham looks to be busting through the Rookie Wall like the Kool-Aid Man. The first overall pick of NBA 2021’s Draft is figuring out his spots on the floor (particularly his mid-range game), angles of attack, and how not to need 40 shots to score 20 points.

In the process, the bricks from his wall have fallen upon several Eastern Conference foes of the Detroit Pistons, notably some of the ones their visitors this evening at Little Caesars Arena, the Atlanta Hawks (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Detroit), need to keep right on losing.

Nate McMillan is catching his coaching buddy Dwane Casey’s club at a less than ideal time for the Hawks. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Hornets, Raptors and Pacers have all felt the Pistons’ wrath in the past couple of weeks. But for a 116-113 loss in D.C. last week, Detroit (17-47, but 5-2 over last 7 games) would be firing on all cylinders with a three-game win streak.

Over the past four games (23.8 PPG, 51.5 FG%, 42.4 3FG%), Saddiq Bey has shown more consistency with his shot, inside and out. Jerami Grant (21.5 PPG, 42.9 3FG% over last four games) is settling down, not having to look over his shoulder to find out whether he had been traded. Now coming off the bench, second-year guard Killian Hayes (28 assists, 9 TOs in past six games) has been useful as a distributor, so long as he doesn’t have to shoot.

Since suffering that mask of crimson courtesy of LeBron back in November, Isaiah Stewart has his head screwed back on straight, averaging nearly a double-double in points and boards plus more than a block per game. Scoring in double figures in his past three games, including 18 points during Friday’s win over Indiana, Marvin Bagley has a new lease on life, similar to that of another Marvin that eventually found his bearings in Utah.

The glue that’s making these winning ways stick is Motor Cade (last 7 games: 20.4 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 4.9 APG), and if Cunningham is passing well and defending, Detroit is tough to beat. The Pistons are 0-8 when he turns over the ball on more than six occasions, but he has had just one of those games since February 1.

Atlanta will want to stick a variety of defenders on Cunningham, who missed the Pistons’ visit to Atlanta along with Grant on October 25, a fairly smooth 122-104 Hawks victory. While striving to cajole Cade into a bunch of turnovers, teammates including Trae Young need to be mindful to rotate out and ensure Bey, Grant, Kelly Olynyk and Cory Joseph aren’t getting open perimeter looks.

Atlanta got a taste of how normally poor shooting teams like Washington (14-for-29 3FGs in their 117-114 loss vs. ATL on Saturday) can make things too close for comfort when they are able to get unfettered spot-ups from beyond the three-point arc. After making half of their 30 three-point attempts versus Indy on Friday, the well-rested Pistons (32.2 team 3FG%, 29^th in NBA) improved to 8-2 when they swish at least 15 treys in a game.

The Hawks may not have Kevin Huerter (questionable, sore shoulder) available to chip in today, but they will not want to engage in matching fire with fire. Detroit will grant quality open looks from outside (NBA-high 37.3 opponent 3FG%), but the prime defensive objective for the Hawks is to discourage the Pistons (NBA-low 48.8 2FG%) from long-range shooting, settling for well-contested interior shots. A strong game on the glass will be needed of Clint Capela and John Collins to ward off Stewart and Bagley, neither of whom are much of a threat outside the paint.

With the league’s bottom-three teams getting equivalent lottery odds, no one around Motown is stressing over being possibly out-maneuvered by Houston or Orlando for another #1 pick. There’s enough of a core for Casey and team exec Troy Weaver to work with going forward, plus Blake Griffin’s ginormous stretched salary comes off the books next year. Players have the leeway to go for broke while building for the near future, and they don’t have to look far beyond the Central Division to see how well patience might play out.

The Bulls stop by the Pizza Pizza Palace on Wednesday, and then the Pistons pay visits to Boston, Miami, Orlando and Cleveland before the Hawks return here on the 23^rd. Closing out the month, Detroit has matchups with Washington, New York, Brooklyn and Philly. A few more victories by the Pistons sure could come in handy for the Hawks (31-32, potentially 8^th in the East with a W this evening).

So here’s to you, Cade Coming-on and Detroit! Continue blazing through Eastern foes all month long. Just not tonight, please. Happy motoring!

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

IF the Hawks take care of business today, the loser of tomorrow's Nets game in Charlotte would drop a full game behind Atlanta in the standings. Given the protection on Charlotte's would-be draft pick... go Hornets, I guess!

Hamidou Diallo has a non-COVID illness and is questionable for the Pistons heading into today's action. Backup guard Frank Jackson is out due to some sort of bilateral lumbar spine spasm thingy, which could be useful on a used car lot.

Reddy V remains a game-time decision with that pesky shoulder. (I left off that Onyeka's available coming off that concussion protocol). Not that we'd know the difference but Sharife has been back with College Park on G-League assignment, while Jalen remains with the top squad. Luka Garza and the two-ways are on G-League assignment with the Motor City Cruise or whatever the Pistons call it these days.

~lw3

 

[Spud2nique]

24 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Detroit will grant

Pun intended 

 

25 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

plus Blake Griffin’s ginormous stretched salary comes off the books next year.

He got a baby Bobby Bonilla on that. 

Nice game thread as always lw3! 
 

As hot as they might be for who they are, we need to bury them. Then again this is the NBA and anything can happen on any night. 
 

Hawks favored by 7.5

Go Hawks! 

[Spud2nique]

11 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Frank Jackson is out due to some sort of bilateral lumbar spine spasm thingy,

 

[Gray Mule]

Pistons win tonight.  Why?  Because Atlanta can't breathe the air of being a .500 team, that's enough reason.  Several times this season we fans have waited and hoped to see our beloved Hawks advance over the hump.  How has that gone down?  Like a dose of castor oil.  Ugh.  As a child, I had to take this.  If you have never taken it, believe me, it tastes terrible.

But Hawks have another player back.  Doesn't matter.  Pistons overcome the odds and the Hawks.  Wouldn't it be great to win tonight!  Ain't gonna happen.

[Spud2nique]

Hawks by 18.

Trae 26/8/4 and Capela 14/24/2. 

Go Hawks! 
 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

55 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

Pistons win tonight.  Why?  Because Atlanta can't breathe the air of being a .500 team, that's enough reason.  Several times this season we fans have waited and hoped to see our beloved Hawks advance over the hump.  How has that gone down?  Like a dose of castor oil.  Ugh.  As a child, I had to take this.  If you have never taken it, believe me, it tastes terrible.

But Hawks have another player back.  Doesn't matter.  Pistons overcome the odds and the Hawks.  Wouldn't it be great to win tonight!  Ain't gonna happen.

 

I'm horrified to include the Hawks on my $10 parlay tonight.  It's just $10, but they might mess it up.

I think they win, but there's no way they cover the -7.5

 

Memphis looked horrible against the Rockets last night.  This could be the scenario for us tonight.

Hawks by 5 tonight.

[JayBirdHawk]

Is this the game we finally get to .500? Big game tonight.

[RedDawg#8]

Nothing else matters in the standings if we cant win games like tonight

The Rockets just dropped the Grizzlies yesterday. You can’t look past any team.

Have to take care of business

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Hawks putting in some different wrinkles in the offense.  Starting Trae off the ball, and having him come get it, then facilitating.

And the reason why Bogi is worse as a starter, is because not only is he guarding better players, better players are guarding him.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

38 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Is this the game we finally get to .500? Big game tonight.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

4 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Hawks putting in some different wrinkles in the offense.  Starting Trae off the ball, and having him come get it, then facilitating.

And the reason why Bogi is worse as a starter, is because not only is he guarding better players, better players are guarding him.

Should have left Gallo as the starter, so Bogi can keep coming off the bench.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Now I see why they gave us homework in school.

I got a shit load of problem solving A3s to update for multiple projects tomorrow . . . but I'm watching the Hawks, plus I'm tired as hell.

 

I need to just grind this out and do this work.  Either that, or go to sleep now, and wake up about 4 am to try to finish it up by the time I go in at 7.

[terrell]

4 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Hawks putting in some different wrinkles in the offense.  Starting Trae off the ball, and having him come get it, then facilitating.

And the reason why Bogi is worse as a starter, is because not only is he guarding better players, better players are guarding him.

Why isnt Huerter better off the bench then?

[LucastheThird]

6 minutes ago, terrell said:

Why isnt Huerter better off the bench then?

Huerter is weird. He's worse on the bench because he's looked at as one of the better players on the bench and guarded as such. But he gets open looks when on the court with Trae because of Trae's heavy pull on offense. 

[Atlantaholic]

We just need to keep this posession going for another 40 minutes and the dub is ours. 

[Atlantaholic]

1 minute ago, LucastheThird said:

Huerter is weird. He's worse on the bench because he's looked at as one of the better players on the bench and guarded as such. But he gets open looks when on the court with Trae because of Trae's heavy pull on offense. 

Huerter just needs to be more aggressive in general. When he is a starter he gets more minutes and his long stretches of disappearing get diluted with his hot stretches. 

[LucastheThird]

Would've liked to see our bench run the lead up a bit more like they used to. 

[Dnice]

Trap game.

[Dnice]

Going to see what GSU can do.