Jalen Brunson found the soft spot in Detroit’s defense Tuesday night, and it was the same one that keeps showing up: fouls.
Against the Knicks, the Pistons slipped back into the kind of defensive habits that have tripped them up before. They play with edge and physicality, but that approach can cross the line, and Brunson was smart enough to turn it against them by forcing contact and getting whistles on key defenders.
Ron Holland II was in the middle of it early. He picked up three fouls in the first quarter alone, and Brunson helped make sure the Pistons paid for every one of them. Holland has become the clearest example of Detroit’s reckless side on defense, and this was another night where it hurt them.
The trouble didn’t stop there. Ausar Thompson and Paul Reed also got dragged into foul issues that badly limited Detroit’s options.
Thompson finished with 6 fouls, while Reed had 5. With the Pistons already short on depth in the center rotation, that kind of foul trouble had a real cost.
It forced Detroit into awkward minutes with its weaker center choices. Tolu Smith logged 6 minutes, and those minutes went poorly, with the Pistons getting outscored by 18 points while he was on the floor. Even so, the team did not have many alternatives once its best defensive bodies started sitting.
This isn’t new for Detroit. The same foul problems showed up last season, when the Pistons won 60 games, and they popped up again in the playoffs, especially in the second round against the Cavaliers. Cleveland racked up enough free throws to help its offense against Detroit’s highly regarded defense.
The Pistons are going to play physical no matter the official crew. That part isn’t changing. But they do need to adjust once they realize how a game is being called, especially when the roster is already thin and foul trouble can strip away even more depth.
That’s the adjustment area Detroit has to clean up as the season goes on. Fouling may not show up as a problem every night, but when the whistles get tight, the Pistons have to ease off the heavy contact sooner. Otherwise, they risk putting themselves in the same bind later, including in the playoffs, where clever foul-drawers can turn their aggression into points.
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Detroit seized control with a 31-7 third-quarter run and turned defense into easy offense by forcing 24 turnovers, the sort of formula that has fueled this strong start. Hollands scoring outburst fit neatly into that picture, giving the Pistons another dimension on a night when their depth and pressure overwhelmed Brooklyn, and it leaves plenty of curiosity about how much more of that aggression can carry over as the schedule tightens. [Read more 🡒]