{"id":450295,"date":"2025-12-03T09:15:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/450295\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:15:49","slug":"central-notes-holland-sasser-cavs-bulls-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/450295\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Holland, Sasser, Cavs, Bulls, Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

After starting each of the Pistons\u2018 first 20 games of the Season, sharpshooter Duncan Robinson<\/a> sat out on Monday vs. Atlanta due to a right ankle sprain. As Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press relays (via Twitter<\/a>), head coach J.B. Bickerstaff expressed confidence before the game that \u201cother guys (would) step up\u201d in Robinson\u2019s absence, and reserve forward Ron Holland<\/a> made good on his coach\u2019s prediction.<\/p>\n

Holland had 17 points, six rebounds, and a pair of steals in just over 17 minutes of action, playing a key role as the Pistons eked out a 99-98 victory over the Hawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was unbelievable,\u201d Bickerstaff said, per Sankofa<\/a>. \u201cHe was the spark for us. We struggled tonight. We did, we struggled tonight. I thought Ron gave us a ton of energy, a fire, the way he just competed. I thought he was phenomenal tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Sankofa writes, Holland is among the players whose energy helps fuel a Pistons team that ranks among the league leaders in several hustle categories, including points off turnovers, deflections, loose balls recovered, and shots contested.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off the bench for me, it allows me to slow the game down and being able to watch where I can really shine and being able to see what guys\u2019 tendencies are, and to go in and make an immediate impact,\u201d Holland said. \u201cI definitely love coming off the bench with this team because one, it\u2019s gonna be nights like this where we start off kinda slow. That\u2019s what the bench mob is for, we get in and bring that spark and the energy we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from around the Central:<\/p>\n

After initially not responding to treatment like the team had hoped, Pistons guard Marcus Sasser<\/a>\u2018s right hip injury is trending in the right direction, per Bickerstaff (Twitter link<\/a> via Sankofa). Sasser remained out on Monday, but the reason cited was \u201creturn to competition conditioning\u201d and he has been playing 3-on-3 scrimmages, so his season debut likely isn\u2019t far off.
\nAfter losing three straight games, the Cavaliers bounced back on Monday with a resounding 135-119 victory over Indiana. According to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com<\/a> (subscription required), star guard Donovan Mitchell<\/a> delivered a pointed message to his teammates after Sunday\u2019s loss in the hopes of getting the Cavs back on the right track. \u201cThis ain\u2019t last year. I told you at the beginning of the year, they coming for us \u2014 as they should,\u201d Mitchell said of his message. \u201cThey\u2019re coming for (Evan Mobley<\/a>\u2018s) Defensive Player of the Year. They\u2019re coming for my first team All-NBA. They coming for Kenny (Atkinson)\u2018s Coach of the Year. They coming for all that. We\u2019re not the underdogs, we\u2019re the hunted. We need to go out there and continue to act like it.\u201d
\nBulls guard Coby White<\/a> will undergo imaging after missing Monday\u2019s game due to some tightness in his left calf, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>. Big man Zach Collins<\/a>, meanwhile, has been cleared for contact as he makes his way back from wrist surgery and the hope is that he\u2019ll practice with Chicago\u2019s G League team this week, Cowley notes. The banged-up Bulls lost another player in Monday\u2019s loss to Orlando when wing Kevin Huerter<\/a> exited after six minutes of action due to what the team referred to as an adductor injury. It\u2019s unclear if Huerter will miss additional time as a result of that ailment.
\nEthan Thompson<\/a>\u2018s new two-way deal<\/a> with the Pacers covers two years, Hoops Rumors has learned. That means Thompson won\u2019t become eligible for free agency until the 2027 offseason if he plays out the full contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After starting each of the Pistons\u2018 first 20 games of the Season, sharpshooter Duncan Robinson sat out on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,963,296,188,3860,864,4958,31821,4103,3302,6,297,9002,4104],"class_list":{"0":"post-450295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-coby-white","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-duncan-robinson","15":"tag-ethan-thompson","16":"tag-kevin-huerter","17":"tag-marcus-sasser","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-pistons","20":"tag-ron-holland","21":"tag-zach-collins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115654884337079852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}