Detroit Pistons’ Team Effort OVERWHELMS Star-Studded Rockets | Ausar Outplays Amen In Twin Battle

Detroit Pistons’ Team Effort OVERWHELMS Star-Studded Rockets | Ausar Outplays Amen In Twin Battle

The Detroit Pistons get their first win of the season against the Houston Rockets in a game in which everyone that touched the floor contributed in some kind of way. We’ll break it down today’s episode. Locked on Pistons podcast. Let’s go. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host, Cuckoo Hill. You can find me over on Twitter, Cucker Hill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network, bankential media member over the last three years. I appreciate all of you guys who make Locked On Pistons your first listen every single day. We are free to help on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to. It’s another great way to support the podcast. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the entire app. Head to fanduel.com to get started today. In today’s podcast, I want to break down Cade Cunningham’s turnovers. He had eight in this game. We’ll talk about a little bit later. Assar outplays Amen Thompson. Is this a sign for future things to come? We’ll break it down a little bit later as well. We’re going to start with how the Pistons got contributions from everybody in this win against the Houston Rockets. They needed those contributions from everybody to be able to pull this win out and get into the win column for the first time this year in Houston. They beat the Rockets 115 1111. Real quickly before we get into that, I want to let you guys know we did again host a live watch party over at the playback room. You can join us again Sunday for the Pistons home opener. If you want to join us and watch the games live with us, it’s been a lot of fun. Click the playback link in the description. And for the next week and a half, I am running a 50% off subscriptions for the Substack. I just dropped another film breakdown going into nine different clips breaking down how K turned the ball over and why the Pistons have to improve in twoon ball situations. We’re going to talk about that actually later, but if you want video breakdowns of it and content all year long, you can pay just $3 a month at the Substack. The deal uh the link to the deal is in the description down below. I appreciate all of you guys’ support. But let’s get into the game now. The Pistons win 11511. This game saw Jaylen Duran get ejected in the first half. didn’t play much at all. Got ejected for an elbow that he it looked like he accidentally went for a swim move and accidentally elbowed them in. But I understand why maybe some Rockets fans feels like it was just, you know, it may have been secretly on I I not to speak to intent, but all we know is that the game was getting super physical at that point. Like Amen Duran, Amen Assar, Assar, and no, not Amen, Assar, Amen, and uh Stew, and then Assar Jabari. Like it was getting really physical. And you could tell by the fact that the first half took over an hour and a half long to finish, man. Over an hour and a half long for the first half to finish. There was review after review after review. 30 plus fouls in one half of the basketball game. It was it was it was a tough watch in the first half simply because of all the stoppages. But during got ejected flagrant 2 for that play didn’t matter though. The Pistons got great contributions throughout their roster to help win this game. I want to shout out a few guys though specifically. We all know the big guys. Cade, Tobias, uh, Stu, Ryan, Assault, like we know these guys. There are some guys in this game that I think deserve a shout out before any of them for how they were able to play and impact the game in their limited minutes on the floor. Dannis Jenkins played five total minutes. Came in in the fourth quarter to spell Cade for just a few minutes, just a few minutes. Give him a little bit of rest. It was a very close game at this point, but they wanted to spell Kade and give him a little bit of rest. risky risky strategy, but it pays off as Danis came in and hit a big-time three and was able to get two more shots or two more points at the free throw line. Came in again, just played five minutes. But in those five minutes, those were critical minutes. He comes and hits a three, keeps the game close, gives the Pistons a lead, just played did what he could in those minimal minutes to have an impact. And that that it was felt. Chaz Laneir, got his first minutes of the year, scored his first basket, went one of three from three, played 12 minutes. I thought Chaz played really well in the first half. He had a really good uh extra pass he made to Duncan Robinson in the corner. The Pistons drove to the rim. I believe it was Cade. Kicked out to Chaz that would have been a slightly contested three, but a really good three for him to be honest at the wing. But he had a wideopen Duncan Robinson next to him in the corner and he immediately touched past it to Duncan who got an easy three. Again, that shows really good IQ and understanding of the the right way to play basketball. I honestly really liked what we saw from Chaz. Now, he shot one of three. I would have loved to see him shoot three of three from three. He got some good looks, but honestly, I thought his defense was pretty good as well. I thought I really liked what we saw from Chaz. He really gave some good minutes in a game that they were missing. Caris Levert, who was out, Marcus Sasser, who was out, and he came in, he played well. Javvante Green played 20 minutes, was constantly engaged, constantly active on the defensive end of the floor. He had seven points, four rebounds, and two assists. But constantly active on the defensive end of the floor, giving it everything he had, his presence was felt. And then who I gave kudos player of the game to after the game, the kudos player of the game. And we might start tallying those to figure out who ends up as a kudos MVP at the end of the year. But the first kudos player of the game goes to Paul Reid. Paul Reid had six points, four rebounds, and a block in the fourth quarter. his total statline, 13 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks in just 19 minutes of action. And he had to play that many minutes because Jaylen Dur was in foul trouble. And by the way, still fouled out of this game. Only played 17 minutes. So, he had to play even more and closed the game for the Detroit Pistons. And Paul Reed absolutely delivered. Had a big time block to seal the game really on Sang Goon at the end of the floor with about 50 seconds left in the game. Had some really nice finishes at the rim. had two buckets when the the play completely broke down the half court and it was one of those no no Paul no Paul don’t do it. Oh yes, he made it kind of plays where Paul is a little bit of a roller coaster, man. Like he he makes some really nice plays, but then he calls his own number a little bit too much. I will say that. But you you kind of like got to take it with him. You got to take it because that’s how you get the Paul Reed experience. the non-stop energy, the random blitzes that forces turnovers and the pick and roll, the constant energy on the defensive end of the floor. He led the Pistons in rebounds in this game against a huge lineup over in Houston. He was absolutely battling Stephen Adams and Alun on the glass on the defensive end of the floor in the fourth quarter. He absolutely played his tail off. He was exceptional. The Pistons might have the third best big in the NBA. Like of all the teams that have three centers, who has the the best third string center? I think Paul Reed probably is the best one. He probably could be the backup center on a lot of teams. He played extremely well. And again, it wasn’t just Duran who missed a lot of time. It was Stu who also was in foul trouble. And they called upon Paul in a game that was very tight against the Houston Rockets. And he absolutely came through with multiple defensive plays, multiple key rebounds, and really some key buckets on the offensive end of the floor when the play broke down. even hit a big time three at the top of the key as well. Paul played absolutely phenomenal. This truly was a game where you got contributions from literally everyone that touched the floor. Ron Holland only played 13 minutes. Fouled out of the game, but in those limited minutes had 11 points, five rebounds, and three assists. I believe the majority of that was all in the first quarter. He also had two or not first quarter, but first half was really impactful. Didn’t get to play much, but in the first half played really well. Isaiah Stewart in his limited time had four points, two blocks, and four rebounds. We know what he does on the defensive end of the floor. Was given Alpun Sangon problems who by the way after having a fantastic game room game one, the Pistons held Sangon to five of 18 from the floor, Stu, Paul Reed, these guys gave them gave the Rockets everything to handle on the defensive end of the floor. And then I guess the last guy want a shout out here. And then we we’re gonna save the two main guys later on the podcast. Duncan Robinson was the butt of the joke of he was getting laughed at in the Pistons Twitter and the Pistons community. Everyone was going after him after just one game. And then in this game, look how much better the Pistons half court offense looked when they ran a little bit more structure, which they did in this game. We’ll get into it in a minute when we talk about Cage turnovers. They got two on ball consistently. They ran offball actions and they got Duncan clean looks and Duncan just looked more comfortable. He shot four of eight from deep. The Pistons now as a team that in this game against the Rockets, you remember in the first game I said 24 three-point attempts. Not a good enough that that’s like you’re playing in 2000. Not saying you have to take 50, but you got to be better than that. They only made seven threes in the first game. That’s not going to cut it. In this game, 16 of 39 from three. They shot 41% from three. Ron made two threes. Cade made three threes. Assar made a three. Dance Jenkins hit a three. Chaz hit a three. Javvante hit a three. Stu hit a three. Paul Reed hit a three. Tobias hit a three. And then obviously Duncan Robinson hit four threes, got eight of them up. That’s what they need from Duncan. They need Duncan to get a lot of threes up. And they need him to make him in a high clip. And he’s going to. He’s done that throughout his career. He has 17 points, three rebounds, and two assists. Two plays I want to shout out for Duncan. He also had three blocks. I think they’re crediting these plays I’m about to talk about as blocks instead of steals. Um they weren’t like he was up at the rim blocking somebody but he was kind of poking the ball loose as they were going up. I guess they’re counting that as blocks. He had a few of those on a room Sangun at the end of this game making a great rotation and then reaching down knocking the ball away that got the Pistons out in transition. Duncan is not going to be a great defender. But if you can just get him active and making the right rotations that’s what you’ll take from him. And he had those key plays doing that in the fourth quarter for the Pistons. He also played 38 minutes for this team and was incredibly effective in those 38 minutes. Duncan had a fantastic game. And when he plays well, when he’s involved and he’s getting threes up and he’s playing well, the Pistons half court offense is going to look much better than it did in the first game. When Duncan is playing well, everything opens up because now you got more spacing. You’re making more threes. You have another person that can maybe attack downhill and create a pass or create an open shot for someone else. Duncan played really well and it really showed in how well the Pistons played within the half court of this game compared to the first one. The first game in that first quarter, the first half against the Bulls really was just disgusting. But in this game looked a lot better. They looked a lot better as a team and going against a team like the Houston Rockets who are considered a contender with KD now in the West. The Pistons took them down at home at Houston. They took them down. A fantastic win for the Detroit Pistons and they got contributions from literally every single person that touched the floor. That’s how you play Detroit Pistons basketball. You get contributions from everyone. Play hard. That’s the identity of this team. Coming up, I want to really get into Cage’s turnovers, how many of them were on him, how the Pistons can improve this, and how why he needs his teammates and maybe even his coaching staff to help him out in some of these regards or some of these possessions. We’ll break it down coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match. With Robin Hood, you play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. 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Ends April 13th. Open to US residents 21 or older. Visit door dashinyourbag.com for full details. Door Dash in yourbag all season long. So, I want to thank you guys again making locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free to on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. If you want to join us for the live watch parties, we’re at 900 and I believe 15 members in there. We’re trying to get to a thousand soon here. So, if you want to watch the games live with me and the rest of Pistons fan base, hit the link down below at the playback room, download the playback app, join the room at watch pistons, you’ll be able to watch the games with me and the rest of Pistons fan base. Or if you want all the content coming to you guys from the substack, all the film breakdowns, just dropped a one this morning. Um, going over the turnovers we’re about to talk about, going over the situations we’re about to talk about coming up. or if you want all the film rim breakdowns, all the content I got over at Substack, we have a 50% off deal, just $3 a month, click the link down below and you can take advantage of that deal. Appreciate all the support from all of you guys. Um, let’s go ahead and get into Cade’s turnover. So, Cade in this game kind of I feel like had a little bit of a similar type of game to game one. Um, he had 21 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds. But in this game again, I feel like we we saw him struggle for the first three quarters of the game. I I thought he was not I don’t believe he was playing very And if you guys can hear my dog in the background losing her mind. What? Why is she like I just had to stop talking for a minute cuz like dude, she sounds like she’s actually losing her mind. Anyways, Paul I this dog dude. Um 21 points, nine assists, seven rebounds. shot seven to 16 from the floor. But through the first three quarters, I thought Cade was really struggling. I thought he wasn’t he didn’t look on his game. He was turning the ball over a lot. Um he wasn’t making the right reads. He looked like he was fumbling the ball a little bit. He was struggling with some of the pressure that the Rockets were giving him full court as well. It wasn’t, I thought, a great game from Cade through the first three games through the first three quarters of the season or the of the of of the game, I should say. But in the fourth quarter, I thought he really turned it up. He played really well. He hit multiple threes in that fourth quarter. Really turned the game around, tried to give the Pistons a lead. He started to take care of the ball a little bit better. Had some good defensive plays. Had a great rotation at the rim on Amen Thompson. Sangun rolling in the short roll. Got Amen Thompson a wide open what looked to be a wideopen layup at the rim. Kade rotates down from the weak side, blocks it from behind. The Pistons get out in transition. He played really well in the fourth quarter. Now that’s backto-back games. now where Kade maybe struggles or is not playing his best through the first three g quarters and then turns it up in the fourth quarter and really tries to bring the Pistons back like it was in Chicago or extend the lead and keep the lead against the Houston Rockets which I know that was something that a lot of Pistons fans wanted to see from Cade which was come through in the fourth quarter, deliver in the fourth quarter, play your best in the fourth quarter and you obviously would not like him to struggle as much as I feel like he’s had or he has through the first three quarters of the game in both Chicago and Houston, but we are seeing him come through in the fourth quarter um of both of these games. Now, I want to specifically mention his turnovers because in this game, he had eight of them. Not acceptable. Like, that’s that’s honestly disgusting. It you can’t Eight turnovers is is wild. Absolutely wild. How did these turnovers happen? Now, there are a few I would say about two of them where it was just laziness from Kate. um bad passes. He like that lob to Assar at the end of the game was a bad pass. Um he had another one when he tried to split a trap and he just dribbled it off his own foot and it went right to Rockets defender. So he had about two or three. I would say that was just him just being lazy, but you can deal with like two or three. Um he you can deal with two or three turnovers a game from Kate. Like that’s you can deal with that. Eight though is bad. So I went through and did a film breakdown if you want to check it out over on Substack. We have film and video breakdown of each thing. So, if you want to see a visual representation of it, check it out. But a lot of these turnovers from Cade were because the Houston Rockets were putting two on ball on every ball screen, every handoff, a every DHO, every everything that involved the screener and Kade, they were putting two on ball. And two on ball means they are trapping him, they’re blitzing him, they’re playing high at the level. They’re putting two guys on Cade as soon as he comes off a screen and forcing him to make a read off of that. Now, we’ve seen Cade multiple time like throughout his career, all of last year, we’ve we’ve seen him be able to attack a four on three and the Pistons be able to attack a fouron three and make something happen when you have that kind of man advantage. We saw a lot of last year. However, I feel like there were a few reasons why I felt like the Pistons didn’t really attack it very as well as they should have in this game as they did in years past. Let me not say years past, just last season. Three, three reasons. One, he wasn’t playing with Jaylen Duran. Jaylen Durren was out and him and JD have a good chemistry with it. Whereas you could see that Paul Reed and some of these other guys, they even got Javvante Green in some screen roles that they’re just not on the same page a lot of times chemistry-wise and they’re not seeing the same things. And I feel like that kind of hurt Cade a little bit. Um, not even a little bit, quite a bit in these screener roll situations. The second thing, the spacing on a lot of these, again, I think this has a lot to do with just familiarity with playing with each other and knowing where to be at, but the spacing in some of these situations where K gets two on ball wasn’t great. And then I forget the third reason, but I forgot what I completely forgot what my third reason was. Um, but let’s get let’s just go ahead and get into some of these armor. So, one of them Oh, oh, the other one I just remembered some of them. the guy who was setting the screen just wasn’t rolling. They they like they you would set a screen, they would set a screen, excuse me, and then they just wouldn’t roll once Kade gets trapped and kind of puts him in a position where he doesn’t have an outlet. So, I’ll go through I’ll pick three of these turnovers. I’ll just go through them with you. One of them, he’s going on screen with Duncan Robinson going around screen on the left side of the floor and Reed Shepard is guarding Duncan Robinson. The Pistons are trying to bring Reed Shepard up into the action to make them switch and force Reed to play defense. Now the Rockets say, “Okay, we’ll show with Reed and just trap.” Now Cade gets Reed up. They trap him along that left baseline or the left sideline, excuse me. And the easy pass would be a flare out to Duncan Robinson who did flare. However, Tyreek Een rotates from the weak side and is running at Duncan to try steal this pass. Cade realizes this. He sees it and now he’s in, but he jumps the pass. So now he has to make a quick decision. He sees it. can’t throw it to Duncan because it would be a pickoff from Tar Een. You should have a threeon two on the weak side. Now the problem is three of the guys in the weak side are now just standing around. None of them are flashing to the high post. None of them are flashing 2K to give him an outlet. You have three guys all huddled around like the block area. None of them are shooters. It was Steu, Ron. I mean Stu can shoot, but Stu, Ron, and Javvante Green. They’re all hovering inside the inside the three-point line and no one’s flashing. So now Kade just has to throw it into the air and they get the recus rockets get easy transition opportunity. Whereas if one of his teammates flash the high post once Kade gets trapped and Tari goes to take away Duncan. The Rockets are now leaving threeon two on the weak side. Ron should have flashed to the high post. Got it. And now he can attack downhill. Either get a bucket for himself or a kick out or a dump off. You have to be able to take advantage of the two-on ball opportunities. Those should be easy buckets for the Pistons. But those guys just weren’t prepared for it. There’s another one. A really bad reaction to the turnover from Kade. Um, this was the one where Tar Een takes the ball from him. Um, or tips the ball, gets the pass. Kade doesn’t really hustle for the loose ball. Tari gets it and then just dunked it easily. I don’t like that Kade didn’t hustle for the ball after this. Like, he just gave it up. He could have easily recovered this, but just kind of gave up on the play. Um, but what happened before this is probably pretty frustrating for Kate. I’m assuming he was pretty frustrated which is he ran a unball screen with Javvante Green because the Pistons were playing. I mean the Rockets were playing a big lineup. So even Sang Goon was guarding wings because they have Stephen Adams out there too. So they’re running a ball screen with Javvante Green. Sang Goon is hedging. He is all the way up high on the other side of the screen. The first rule you got to do, you learn this I feel like I learned this in high school like this was pretty early. The best way to beat a hedge, the best way to beat a blitz is to slip. You have to slip. If a if your defender when you’re coming up to set a screen is all the way up on the other side of the screen, you should be slipping instantly to give your team a chance your point guard to outlet it to you, but then to give your team a four and three situation. And Cade was kind of like rocking back and forth with the ball because Javvante was just standing there. He wasn’t rolling. He was just standing there holding B, setting a screen and and Sang Goon’s on the other side and he’s just not slipping. So now Cage’s rocking back and forth. Now they pressure him really bad. They start trapping him aggressively and instead of rolling to the basket, Javvante flares out or kind of just roams a little bit to the opposite opposite wing for a three. Just it was bad process. Javvante has to roll to the basket there. And now Cade the entire time, by the way, if you’re watching him, he’s looking for the bounce pass, waiting for Dvonte. He’s literally looking down, waiting for Dvonte to go so he can throw this bounce pass. Now he’s frustrated, it looks like to me, and just throws a lot of pass against Tip. Tar takes it and gets a dunk. Now Kate has to be more careful with the ball. He can’t just lob it because he’s frustrated and he has to recover the loose ball. I get that. That’s on him. But it starts from the fact that his teammates are either one not familiar with his game. Javvant is a new teammate. Or two, I think is the bigger thing is that they’re not natural screeners. So without it being hammered home by the coaching staff, you’re kind of you’re not really adept at being a screener. Which leads us to our third third point I want to bring up. In the fourth quarter, the Pistons were running ball screens with Paul Reed and Paul Reid wasn’t making the right decisions out of the short roll, I thought, which they took a timeout. It was about four minutes left, three and a half minutes left in the game. And I was saying on the live watch party, I said during the timeout, if I’m JB, I am switching Assar and Paul Reed. Put Paul Reed in the dunker spot. Let Assar be the screener because you trust Assar. You trust Assar as a short roll passer, a short roll finisher, a short roll decision maker. Switch it. And they come out of timeout and that’s exactly what they They started running pick and rolls with Assar. The very first one they did, they put two on ball with Kade. Assar rolled immediately. He gets the bounce pass and then he finishes over Jabari Smith at the rim with a nice left hand layup. Perfect. Perfect execution. They trap. You slip instantly. Kade gets it to you. You get an athlete going to the rim that can pass and can finish. Perfect execution. It should be every single play. The next possession, no, the next two possessions or the next first possession, I should say, the next one after that, Assar sets the screen and he roams just like Javvante did. He he after having a perfect slip now he’s roaming and Cage’s kind of just waiting. He’s waiting and by the time he gets it to Assar, Assar is not at the three-point line. He has to dribble down himself. Whereas if he just rolls, if he slips quickly, now you got the four on three. You get the exact same situation. You got the possession prior. So that’s it wasn’t a turnover, but you can see that it felt like guys weren’t accustomed to being screeners at times. I feel like it wasn’t being hammered home enough by the coaching staff. Like the coaching staff should be telling them at this point in the timeout every single time they hedge blitz slip. You need to be slipping every single time. Every single time whoever’s creating slip to the basket and then I guess the last play, the next possession, this one’s on Kade a little bit. This was a turnover from him, he gets trapped in a ball screen with Assar. Asar again slips well. So first possession slips, second possession doesn’t. Third possession he does slip. Kade has the bounce pass, but Kade doesn’t throw it. He tries attacking the rim twoon-one still. So he gets all the way to the rim and by the time he then tries to throw the pass to Assar, there’s four defenders in the paint now and now Assar fumbles it and now it’s a turnover. Whereas if Kade gets that ball to Assar early on the slip, Tobias is wide open in the corner because KD who is guarding Tobias is helping down trying to take away the dump off. So you get the ball early to Assar. Assaar is now twoon one on the weak side. He just throws an easy corner pass to Tobias. You have an open three. A lot of the Pistons cons or struggles and K’s turnovers was simply just not being on the same page in the two-1 ball situations. Guys not rolling, guys not slipping, guys not flashing to the high post when Kade gets trapped. His teammates have to help him. Kade has to be smarter with the ball. He has to be more assertive with his passes. That’s true. And he can’t be fr can’t get frustrated that quickly. However, he needs his teammates and his coaching staff to help him out in these scenarios. because the coaching staff I feel like did their job by putting the right guys in a screen and role. But these guys need to slip. These guys need to shoulder themselves. These guys need to flash. They have to make themselves available to be able to attack man advantages when Kade draws two players. And that just wasn’t the case a lot of the times in this game. Now, they ended up pulling it out because they did it just enough. Kade had a really good fourth quarter and Duncan played really well and Assar played really well. But if they want to get even better moving forward, that’s something that they have to start doing. They have to start getting a lot better with this, especially when Durn’s not in the game and the non natural screeners. They have to roll. They got to roll to the basket. Long segment there, but is what it is. Um, coming up, Assaar outplays Amen Thompson, his twin brother. Is this a sign of things to come? We’ll talk about it coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by Rugette. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired. Or it happens to everyone sometimes. 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Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. Check out the links down below for the playback to subsec all that good stuff. Um, Assar Thompson with another really good game. I thought he played really good in the first game. I know apparently some people believe that 11, nine, and seven on five of eight shooting is terrible. I I disagree. But then in this game, played really well. 19 points on nine of 16 from the field. Got a lot more aggressive as a scorer in this game. Was efficient. 19 four assists, two rebounds, a block, a steal. Only one turnover. Again, only one. He’s not turned the ball over and made a three in this game. Whereas Amen, his brother on the other side of the floor was two of eight from the floor, six of 10 from the free throw line, had 10 points, four rebounds. It was cool to see Asar outplay his brother, especially because everyone believe, it feels like everyone believes a men, they always talk about a men and kind of gets left in the back burner. So, the fact that Sar was able to come out and get this win over Amen was cool to see. Um, he only did this in 24 minutes of action because he was in foul trouble immediately as well. He got two fouls in the first two minutes of the game and he had to come out the game and then he didn’t get to play much in the first half. So he only played 24 minutes of action. They had 194 and2 a 916 shooting. The Pistons I actually let me just tell you guys again. I don’t think people truly understand. There was 31 fouls called just on the Pistons. 31 foul calls and then 24 in the Rockets. We had a game with 55 fouls called. 55 and a flagrant two and multiple technicals. Like my goodness, like talk about ruining the flow of the game. Um, but look, Assar played really well. He was aggressive getting to the basket. He had an incredible baseline drive on Jabari Smith. Gave him an in-n-out crossover that was filthy and finished at the rim. He had a few mid-range pull-ups that you can see that he’s really comfortable with those mid-range pull-ups. Apparently, Fred Vincent talked about this in an interview on another podcast last week that he felt like that as far as mid-range jumper was really uh improved and comfortable with it. Um he didn’t say much about the three-point shot, which makes me think he’s not as confident on that. But Fred brought up the mid-range shot and felt like he’s really confident in that and Asar looks like he’s um very comfortable going to it. Uh obviously he has some really good cuts to the basket and slashing to the basket against the Houston Rockets zone which they tried to play in the second and third quarter and Sar kind of broke that as well. Obviously we just talked about it had a few really good reps in the short role as well. Um Thrar played really well. Played really well and now through two games is averaging 15 and a half, five and a half, five and a half, one. Um love to see it. Love want him to continue to be aggressive. The fact that he got 16 shots up I honestly really like is the fact that he’s being aggressive as a scorer. The Pistons need him to continue to be aggressive as a scorer. And he even hit a three in this game. He took a three with like 40 seconds left and they kicked it out to him in the left wing. I am I am on board with him taking that three, being confident catching and shooting. You want him catching and shooting threes and being confident in it. He made one of them tonight. You would have loved to see him hit that one. Um but I was okay with that shot because you want him to be aggressive and confident in his shot. Um if he can hit one of three threes lowkey, like you like you take it for sure. Um there’s two things though that I will point out that Sar needs I I I think he still needs to improve on and that he hasn’t looked good on so far through the season in just two games. Um free throws. What’s going on Asar? Like the free throws is like I defend you a little bit in the preseason because it’s just preseason. Now you still going into the regular season. Last year their final 23 games you shot 71% from the free throw line. Like what’s going on? There’s no reason why you should just be 0 of two from the free throw line struggling like this from the free throw line. You shot better this past year. You look better at the free throw line as the year went on. Let’s get back to that. That’s something that has to improve, especially about how often he’s going to be slashing to the basket. How often he’s going to get fouled. Let’s get back to that where you were at near 70% from the free line. Can we get back to that, please? Like come on. Of two is is terrible. That’s one. And then two, the other thing is I feel like while he is very comfortable with the mid-range shot, it seems like he’s going to be going to it quite a bit, which is fine. I guess he can go to it. There’s times where I feel like he goes to it before his drive is even taken away. Like there was a drive in the third quarter when he went up for a bank shot on a men um and he missed it where he didn’t even like I feel like the drive was still available. He didn’t even try to drive it. He kind of just accepted the space and took a midi. I don’t want the midi to be the first uh answer to your to the question when you’re on ball. It should be the counter. You go to the midi, they kind of wall off your drive. It’s going to be tough to get there. Now you’re going to the midi. I don’t want him just, you know, turning down drives because there’s space and now he just wants to take a midi. I don’t know if that’s I don’t know if that’s the best process. Um but those were my I guess two complaints from his game against the Houston Rockets. But he was good on defense again. had a really good block earlier in the game I believe on Reed Shepard at the rim or actually no I think it was Sangun actually on a floater. Um had a really nice rim protection rep um and again if he can stay out of foul trouble, play more minutes, again this was just in 24 minutes what he did. If he can continue to be this aggressive offensively and give the Pistons this kind of scoring and aggression as a driver, it’s going to be a big year for us. So really good game from everybody. I feel like uh everyone found a way to contribute in this game. Um, great win for the Detroit Pistons against a contending Houston Rockets team. Let me know your guys’ thoughts on this game and how the Pistons have looked through the first two games of the season down in the comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cooko. That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making lockdown Pistons your first listen every single day. Free on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And until next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out everybody.

The Detroit Pistons secure their first win of the season against the Houston Rockets. Can this victory spark a turnaround for the struggling team?

Host Ku Khahil breaks down the Pistons’ impressive team effort, highlighting Cade Cunningham’s 21-point performance and Ausar Thompson’s standout game. The analysis covers Cunningham’s turnover issues, Detroit’s improved three-point shooting, and key contributions from role players like Paul Reed and Duncan Robinson. Khahil examines the Pistons’ offensive strategies against aggressive defenses and compares the Thompson twins’ performances.

Please tune in for an in-depth look at how the Detroit Pistons overcame challenges to clinch their first win and what it means for their season ahead.

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PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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