Pistons top Jazz 92-87, improve to 2-0 on season

Overall, this was a winnable game.

FOX Sports Southeast, the exclusive regional television home of the Atlanta Hawks, drew a household (HH) rating of 2.2 for Tuesday’s contest, doubling last year’s 1.1 HH rating for Atlanta’s season-opener at the Toronto Raptors. “See”, he said simply.

The biggest surprise from opening night might have been the rotation the Hawks employed. The two losses were quite similar. Budenholzer’s teams have typically responded well to losses, but it has been a rare occurrence when they have been thoroughly outplayed across the board.

After the best regular season in franchise history, the Hawks won two playoff series before getting swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference final.

The Pistons’ starters were a plus-103.

The fourth quarter began with the Pistons bench still bringing the good vibes and aggressiveness.

The Pistons were content to post up their forwards, letting the offense slow down in their halfcourt offense. They outrebounded the Hawks 59-40, as thorough of a beating as can be given over 48 minutes.

They were competitive on the road for four quarters in front of a charged-up crowd at the famous Palace of Auburn Hills. Marcus Morris isn’t the long term solution at small forward, with Stanley Johnson waiting for his turn, but Drummond is the present and future of the team. That move by Gordon put the Jazz up ahead with 20 seconds (or so) remaining. We have to be leaders. “Other guys have to follow us”.

The Hawks next travel to play the Knicks Thursday. “We’re all just happy the season is here and everything really counts now”. “And we convinced him to come to Detroit”. “I thought Rodney was back in front and I was going back on Andre for the rebound”. The fun wouldn’t last; the Jazz defense again mucked up the flow of the game.

“This is a lot different than previous year”, Bazemore said.

The Jazz had a strong second half last season and it was keyed at the defensive end where the team is anchored by Gobert, the 7-1 center from France. Now, we’ve established ourselves with the year we had last year. “Offensively, make sure we get a rhythm the next two weeks or so”.

Gores joked that Tellem’s hiring was the talk of last week’s preseason league meetings in New York, where “most of the owners were wondering, ‘How the heck did we get Arn?’ … Coach just said to attack and find a way to win”. So, there is work to be done. “We screwed up a lot of things”. Rebounding is something we have to get better at.