#2: The Pistons Missed Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock defensively

The Pistons were getting killed the whole game by penetration by the Nets guards, especially Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert. It forced Andre Drummond and Zaza Pachulia to move around a lot and both players were out of position quite a bit because of it. It forced them into some bad fouls and it allowed Jarrett Allen to dominate Andre Drummond in the first half. Both the Pistons centers finished the game with 5 fouls and it was mainly due to the penetration the Nets guards were able to get.

Bruce Brown was very solid defensively and was able to make up for a lot of the physicality that Stanley Johnson brings on defense. However, his offensive shortcomings are significantly more than Stanley Johnson’s, and that is saying quite a lot with the shortcomings on offense that Johnson has had thus far in his career. Brown is also not as big as Johnson or Bullock, and he was the biggest guard that the Pistons played in this game. Dinwiddie and LeVert are both tall guards at 6-foot-6, and their combination of length and quickness was giving the likes of Reggie Jackson, Ish Smith, Luke Kennard and Langston Galloway nightmares.

If the Pistons had Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock, they would have had players to match up with the Nets bigger guards and things would have been a lot better defensively. Bullock and Johnson are the Pistons’ two best wing defenders and you could tell that they were missing them a lot in this game.

Next Up: Takeaway #3