Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff couldn’t hide his frustration following his side’s heartbreaking 131-129 loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday night.

Keyonte George drove the lane, and the ball bobbled in with 2.1 seconds left, settling the game. It was the correct result, given that the Jazz had led for the majority of the third quarter. However, Detroit rallied and tied the game late, setting up the exciting finale.

But after the final buzzer sounded, there was visible exasperation from the Pistons. For Bickerstaff, he immediately let his feelings be known in the postgame press conference, having conceded 66 points in the second half, 44 of them in the third, which Bickerstaff says hurt his team.

“Discipline, execution, commitment to who we are,” Bickerstaff said afterwards.

“You know, 44 points in a quarter is unacceptable. I know we ask a lot of our guys, and most nights they give it to us. Tonight was one of those nights where we were loose from the start.

“To [concede] 33, 34, 44 [points], that’s not who we are, and what we do isn’t part-time. In order to be who we want to be, that has to be consistent every night.

“I think offensively, we did a lot of great things, but we let each other down on the defensive end of the floor tonight.”

The Pistons outscored Utah 26-20 in the final quarter, but the damage was done in the third, even with the fightback in the fourth. Despite the loss and the overall record, which moves to 24-7 and is still top of the East, Bickerstaff is adamant that his side is in a good spot but is nowhere near the finished product he wants them to be.

“I give our guys a ton of credit for being where we are now, but also understanding that we’re not a finished product, right,” Bickerstaff says.

“Like, we’ve been able to carry things through and make things work out for us. But we’re still aiming to put together 48-minute games. And, I think that’s going to be the maturation of this team throughout the season, where no matter the time or score, we get 48 minutes of Pistons basketball.

“You know, I think there has been times where we played, 42 minutes or whatever it may be, but we’re still aiming to put together complete games.”

The Pistons now continue their nine-game road trip and head to Los Angeles next to take on the Clippers on Sunday.