{"id":727884,"date":"2026-05-07T07:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/727884\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:54:25","slug":"pistons-notes-bickerstaff-duren-jenkins-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/727884\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Notes: Bickerstaff, Duren, Jenkins, Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pistons were the worst team in the league when J.B. Bickerstaff was hired<\/a>\u00a0as the head coach. In just two seasons, they have become a formidable force in the Eastern Conference, with a chance to get to the NBA Finals this season.<\/p>\n

Much of the credit for that success goes to the players, especially Cade Cunningham<\/a>, who catapulted himself into MVP conversations this season, but Bickerstaff\u2019s approach and emphasis on playing with maximum effort and tenacity have been a massive part of setting the team\u2019s identity, Hunter Patterson writes for The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond the grit-and-grind mentality, what makes Bickerstaff special is how he approaches his relationship with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody feels like they can call him to talk about if they have problems with their girlfriend or if they need something for their kids,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a very selfless and supportive person. Having somebody like that who cares about you on the court and wants you to be great on the court, but then also actually cares about your life and your well-being off the court is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff was previously the coach of the Cavaliers, but he\u2019s not bringing any baggage from his dismissal to this series, Chris Fedor writes for Cleveland.com (subscriber link<\/a>). However, that doesn\u2019t mean that his added familiarity with many of the players isn\u2019t helpful when it comes to game planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just \u2026 I spent a lot of time with those guys,\u201d he said, smiling.<\/p>\n

We have more Pistons notes:<\/p>\n

After a rough first round against the Magic, in Game 1 against the Cavaliers, Jalen Duren<\/a> once again looked like the star big man he has been all season, Omari Sankofa II writes for the Detroit Free Press<\/a>. Whether crashing the offensive boards, making momentum-building defensive plays, or hitting timely dunks, he has made it hard for the Cleveland big men to get comfortable. He said that one thing he learned in the series against Orlando was how much he can impact a game when the offense isn\u2019t clicking, Larry Lage of the Associated Press writes<\/a>. \u201cMy value is on the defensive end,\u201d he said. \u201cMy value is crashing the glass. It doesn\u2019t always have to be scoring for me.\u201d
\nDaniss Jenkins<\/a>\u2018 breakout season has carried over into the playoffs, when he\u2019s been asked to play major minutes in high-leverage situations, including 29 minutes in Game 1 against Cleveland. He repaid that confidence by scoring six points and adding three rebounds and a steal in the final 3.5 minutes of the game, Lage writes<\/a>. It\u2019s only the latest accomplishment in a season full of them for the former undrafted free agent. \u201cHe\u2019s been building for it all year,\u201d teammate Duncan Robinson<\/a> said. \u201cHis journey is unique, and it takes somebody with a special will and character to have that story. He has unshakeable confidence for someone who\u2019s been overlooked his whole career, and he just wears it as a chip.\u201d
\nBickerstaff believes that having to win three games in a row to advance past the first round helped the Pistons learn what it takes to survive in the playoffs, ESPN\u2019s Jamal Collier writes<\/a>. \u201cYou understand how to close and how to finish. How to get to your spots,\u201d he said. \u201cThen you grow belief that you can. That series did a lot of that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pistons were the worst team in the league when J.B. Bickerstaff was hired\u00a0as the head coach. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,6101,296,188,3860,1648,912,6,297],"class_list":["post-727884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-daniss-jenkins","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-j-b-bickerstaff","tag-jalen-duren","tag-nba","tag-pistons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116532220005907271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727884","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=727884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}