Despite leading the Eastern Conference for most of the season, the Detroit Pistons were never able to convince everyone of their championship bona fides. The main reason was the lack of trust in their offense.
The Pistons seemingly didn't have enough shooting and scoring juice for their offense to survive against elite defenses. While Detroit's defense remains the team's calling card heading into the playoffs, there has been a major upward trend on the other end of the floor, giving Pistons fans a ton of hope before the postseason.
Pistons' 3-Point Shooting Is Becoming a Strength
The Pistons have been one of the hottest teams from downtown over the last month of the season. In the last 20 games, the Pistons hit 39.3% of their three-point attempts, per Cleaning the Glass. This ranks fourth in the league in that span, less than a percentage point below the league-leading Denver Nuggets. Before March 5, when this stretch started, the Pistons were 25th in the league with 34.6% from deep.
The Pistons still don't get up enough threes. Their three-point frequency still hasn't changed, as they take as few threes as any playoff team in the league. An increase in accuracy in the ones they do take, however, is enough to give the Pistons a higher offensive ceiling in the playoffs.
Duncan Robinson is the biggest reason for this increase.
He was already a 40% shooter for the season, but has been shooting the lights out in recent weeks. He is making almost three threes per game on 48% from downtown in the last 20 games. Daniss Jenkins has similarly been hot from three since seeing an increased workload in Cade Cunningham's absence.
Tobias Harris is also making 41.5% of his threes in the last 15 games, and Javonte Green has been over 40% since the All-Star break.
Players outside of Robinson are low-volume shooters, but their ability to hit jumpers when they are open creates valuable space for the rest of the team. The Pistons' playoff success will hinge on how many shots the role players will hit. If they continue their hot streak, this will prevent opposing defenses from packing the paint.
This will help Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren operate with more space, while the rest of the team continues to crash the boards for second-chance opportunities.
Having as many reliable shooters as possible in the playoff rotation will benefit the Pistons as they begin their pursuit of a deep postseason run. Let's hope that this hot shooting streak continues for another two months.