The Detroit Pistons suffered a heartbreaking loss on Wednesday to fall 3-2 behind in Round 2 of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Despite leading big for long stretches of the game, including by nine with three minutes to go in regulation, the Pistons dropped their third straight game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Pistons have responded well with their backs against the wall throughout the season and in the first round, so they are more than capable of still winning this series. However, there is a major concern ahead of Game 6 in Cleveland. Head coach JB Bickerstaff seems completely lost and has no idea what to do with the Pistons' center rotation.
JB Bickerstaff is completely lost about the Jalen Duren situation
Jalen Duren continues to be a major disappointment. He was awful once again in Game 5. In 25 minutes of action, he had nine points, five rebounds, and four assists on 3/5 shooting from the field. He was a team-worst -16 in his minutes. Yet, he played 25 out of the first 36 minutes of the game.
Then, all of a sudden, it was Paul Reed time. He had not seen the court all game until the fourth quarter, but Bickerstaff decided to start the quarter with Reed at center. He ended up playing the rest of the game, including overtime.
This is as bizarre a rotation decision as it comes. This has to be some sort of record that a player who hasn't played a single minute until the fourth quarter played 17 straight minutes to close the game.
As expected, Reed was solid once again, putting up ten points, eight rebounds, and two blocks on 4/7 shooting from the field. This was the third straight game that Reed outplayed Duren, but played significantly fewer minutes than he did.
Bickerstaff has been deploying Reed whenever the Pistons fall behind in the game. This was the case in Game 5 as well. After being behind for most of the game, the Cavs took a lead at the end of the third quarter. Bickerstaff immediately benched Duren and went with Reed to start the fourth quarter.
This begs the question: Why wait until your back is against the wall to go to a player you clearly trust enough to close a game?
Bickerstaff playing Reed whenever the Pistons are in trouble shows that he knows he can make a big impact. Why does he have to wait until Duren's minutes become unsustainably bad to have Reed out there?
This gives the impression that Bickerstaff is in over his head. He knows that Reed gives him the best chance to win, but he doesn't want to lose Duren. This leads to strange rotation decisions, especially since he wants to give Isaiah Stewart some minutes as well. Despite all this, he wasn't comfortable playing any of the bigs together for a single second of the game.
Bickerstaff is pressing all the buttons on the controller right now. While some of them have been working, the way he has been handling the Duren situation certainly hasn't. What he does with the center rotation will be the biggest decision he has to make in the rest of this series.
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