This illustrates a point I went and E-mailed the Pistons and Kenny Smith over:
The Pistons are not lazy; they do not have bench scoring.
Q)Why do the Pistons sometimes have off games or games where it looks like they just can't produce?
A)They're lazy
A)They don't have a guard or small forward they can bring off the bench and put up a bunch of points.
Phoenix: Bell and Nash get low on scoring, Bell still has his defense, and Nash still has his playmaking, but Barbosa comes off the bench and gives them a huge boost. He's there every night and can score
San Antonio: Weird case, because Ginobili comes off the bench. But if he's cold or Tony Parker is cold, they step up with Finley or Barry and put up some points.
LA: Kobe or Fish have an off night? Vujacic and Farmar each chip in about 10 points a night. They can increase this production between the two.
Utah: Not really a guard, but it's no surprise that this team turned around as soon as they picked up Kyle Korver. Korver can come off the bench and put up a lot of points in a hurry, and that takes pressure off of the starters.
New Orleans: They didn't have much of a bench, but two big players for them are Pargo and Wells. What do they have in common? They can get a bunch of points in a hurry.
Dallas: Jet, anyone?
And finally
Detroit has no one. Billups gets cold? The entire load has to be picked up by Hamilton. Hamilton goes cold? Billups has to do everything. DETROIT "FALLS ASLEEP" IN GAMES BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FIREPOWER IN THEIR BENCH. They have good players on their bench, but unless one of them gets really, really hot, they're not going to lift the team up when the team desperately needs a boost. This is a problem that will continue to haunt Detroit, unless they sign someone in the off season who can come up big for them. It is the only exploitable hole in the Detroit team.
