After a near disastrous outing Monday night in Charlotte, Reggie Jackson and the offensively impaired offense from Detroit will look to get back to their winning ways tonight when the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that is definitely more similar than different to the Pistons.
After winning eastern conference player of the week, Reggie Jackson, Point Guard of the Pistons followed his achievement up with an atrocious offensive outing against the Hornets, just days after his crowning. Jackson shot 2-9 from the field, scored four points, and most importantly allowed his team to receive the demolition the Hornets imploded on them to happen. In the 104-84 loss Monday night, there wasn’t a moment in the second half where Detroit wasn’t trailing by double digits. In Jackson’s previous four games though, he shot at least 46% from the field every game and averaged 27 points per game. Interestingly enough, the Pistons won all four of those games. Reggie understands that much of his team’s potential success depends on him but at the same time realizes how horrific the rest of the team has been offensively season as well. When asked about his team’s abysmal field goal percentage for the season (41%), angrily Jackson replied to the media by saying, “It’s embarrassing, it’s frustrating as well, but it’s embarrassing. We talk about we want to be somewhere special, but we’ve got to grow up. You’ve got to be who you’re going to be in this league every day, night in and night out. It’ll put you in the best position to win games.”
Nine out of the twelve wins Detroit has this season all came when the team scored over 100 points. In simplest terms, if Reggie Jackson struggles and his team struggles to score the basketball, the Pistons don’t have a good shot at being in the victory column.
Luckily for Detroit though, the team they host tonight, the Grizzlies possess the same strengths and weaknesses the Pistons do. Memphis ranks third to last in the league in points per game and are in the upper half in points allowed. This is very similar to Detroit at ninth worst in the league in points per game and seventh in the league in points allowed. The Grizzlies are also very strong in their front court where they have two former all-stars, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph manning the Center and Power Forward position. Detroit can match that with who many call the league’s best Center, Andre Drummond and a solid backup in Aron Baynes. Van Gundy was asked if Detroit might play both Baynes and Drummond tonight in an attempt to match-up with Memphis’s bigs. Like usual, Van Gundy said it is a possibility but he would like to stick with the usual rotations which includes Drummond and Baynes being on the court at different times.
Tune into Fox Sports Detroit tonight at 7:30 pm ET tonight to watch this compelling battle of two near identical teams take place.
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