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    • Jaden Ivey stays hot beyond the arc, but the Detroit Pistons go cold
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    Jaden Ivey stays hot beyond the arc, but the Detroit Pistons go cold

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

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    The Golden State Warriors didn’t need their stars to bury the Detroit Pistons under a barrage of three-pointers on Sunday.

    The Pistons were beaten on the road by the Warriors 111-93, although the 2022 NBA champions were without Steph Curry and Draymond Green. They overcame their absence by knocking down 18 3-pointers on 39 attempts. A 17-2 run at the end of the first quarter created an insurmountable deficit for the Pistons, who knocked down just seven of their 29 shots from beyond the arc (and just one of nine in the opening period).

    Jaden Ivey led the Pistons with another strong night – 19 points (7-of-10 shooting, 3-of-5 from 3) and four assists, although he also committed four turnovers. Cade Cunningham (18 points, seven assists) and Jalen Duren (14 points, nine rebounds, three blocks) also scored in double figures.

    Offensive work: Tobias Harris shines in his debut, Cade Cunningham does a lot in the blowout for the Detroit Pistons

    Six players reached double figures for the Warriors, led by Moses Moody (14 points). The Pistons (2-2) end the preseason on Wednesday at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit).

    Head coach JB Bickerstaff replaced Tim Hardaway Jr. with Malik Beasley in the starting lineup, which was completed by Cunningham, Ivey, Duren and Tobias Harris (six points, four assists, three blocks, two steals).

    Ivey continues to show consistency as a shooter

    The third-year guard has been the Pistons’ best offensive player, thanks in part to the leap he appears to be making as a 3-point shooter. He entered Sunday’s game having knocked down six of 12 attempts in three games, and he was nearly the only Piston to hit one against the Warriors, accounting for three of their seven attempts.

    It’s not just Ivey’s shooting, though – his speed is a weapon and he looked more confident in an offense where he always found ways to advance downhill. Ivey has attacked open spaces on cuts, lost defenders on screens and beaten entire defenses in transition. So far in the preseason, he ranks second in field goal percentage (26-for-43, 60.5%) and trails only Cunningham in shot attempts.

    The pistons in the first and second units are still seeking balance

    It was a hard-fought game for a total of eight minutes. When Cunningham went out for the first time, the Pistons were down 16-15 with 4:34 to play in the first quarter. They didn’t score a field goal the rest of the quarter and trailed by 14 points at the end of the quarter.

    The second unit, in which Ivey played as the sole ball-handler with Hardaway Jr., Ron Holland, Simone Fontecchio and Isaiah Stewart, struggled to find its flow as Golden State fired 3-pointers and made six of its seven attempts in the quarter. Cunningham and Harris are two of the Pistons’ best passers, and the offense stalled with both on the bench.

    Bickerstaff has outshone Cunningham and Ivey so far, but Ivey may need more support if he wants to play long stretches of the game without Cunningham.

    Contact Omari Sankofa II at [email protected]. Follow him @omarisankofa.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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