Pistons: Christian Wood Steps up in Andre Drummond’s Absence

Christian Wood steps up once again for the Detroit Pistons when they needed him the most.

Detroit touched down in Houston with James Harden and company waiting, leaving the Detroit Pistons with a tough task. Houston decided to rest superstar guard Russell Westbrook, who was out as a part of this new NBA ‘load management’ trend.

Detroit limited Harden to 39 points, his season average.  That’s a win for the Pistons because Harden was coming off of back to back 50-plus point performances.

The problem was, Detroit was missing Andre Drummond, who is battling an eye infection.  He suffered this during Detroit’s visit to Mexico City.  He’s claimed it’s from an Avocado allergy, but it’s Mexico, who knows what he got up too.

Although Andre played against the Dallas Mavericks in Mexico City, he was forced to sit out against Houston.  On the bench, his left eye appeared to be nearly swollen shut. If that weren’t enough, the Pistons would lose their star forward Blake Griffin after just 15-minutes of work and a mere 2 points.

Griffin wouldn’t return in the second half after suffering a knee injury.  Perhaps the same knee injury that cost him nearly the first month of the season has crept back up and continues to hamper Blake.  Griffin has yet to really find his rhythm this season, after producing a career year with the Piston’s last season we may have seen the best of Blake.

Injuries had always been a concern for the big man during his Clipper days. Now I’m becoming more and more concerned about how injuries could limit him for the remainder of his Detroit days.

After bouncing around in the NBA G-League, Christian Wood has finally found himself a home with the Detroit Pistons.  Wood was claimed off of waivers this summer from the New Orleans Hornets, a team, the Pistons, beat before heading out to Mexico.

Wood is averaging 9.1 points, 5 boards per game in just 15.3 minutes of work this season.  That does include his 28 points, 10 rebound effort earlier in the season against the Spurs.

Christian was pressed into duty after Griffin remained in the locker room for the second half last night.  He played exceptionally well, scoring 11 points and ripping down 12 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes of work.

While I’ve been impressed with Wood’s scoring ability, especially from range, he’s shooting a spectacular 44% from three.  Something that should not go unnoticed is the fact that Wood is a plus player, or at the very least, even in 11 of the teams’ last 12 games. Over that span, he’s averaging 15 minutes a night, scoring 9.6 PPG and 5.8 boards off the Pistons bench.

I wonder if Detroit decided to move Andre Drummond at the trade deadline if Christian Wood could elevate his game and score double-digits on a regular basis.  He’s shown the ability to rebound, and his shooting percentage from the field (62.8%) suggests he has the potential to thrive playing 30-minutes a night.

Note: There was a Thon Maker sighting. He’s been virtually invisible this season scored 4 and corralled 6 boards and blocked 2 shots last night playing a season-high 25:09 minutes with Drummond unable to go.