The Detroit Pistons will move from one injury-riddled opponent to another when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.
Detroit overwhelmed depleted Philadelphia on Thursday, 131-109. The Pistons had seven players score in double figures — none of whom were named Cade Cunningham — and never trailed against a Sixers club missing seven players.
The Grizzlies are dealing with so many injuries that they signed Tyler Burton off the roster of their G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, on a 10-day hardship contract Thursday.
The Pistons led Philadelphia by double digits most of the way, though the Sixers did pull within four late in the first half.
“I think for the most part we did a good job of doing the things that we wanted to do coming into the game,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Paying attention to the details, talking about our system and all those things. Again, defensively, I didn’t think we were great in that second quarter, but I think for the rest of the time, we did the job. I think offensively, even that second quarter, we were turning it over a little too much which gave them opportunities. But overall, I think we did a really good job tonight.”
Duncan Robinson scored a team-high 19 points as the Pistons recorded their second consecutive win after a four-game slide.
“Just a little more intention about playing the way we want to play on both sides of the ball,” Robinson said. “We obviously had a little skid there, [but the] goal is to learn from it. To go through that is invaluable because you can take things from it. A lot of times the most valuable lessons come from losing, unfortunately.”
Cunningham, an All-Star and potential Most Valuable Player candidate, only took six shots while scoring eight points. He was content to be a distributor, racking up 13 assists in 28-plus minutes.
Memphis had only eight players available in a 120-112 home loss to Dallas on Thursday, their sixth consecutive defeat. The Grizzlies hung tough behind Jaylen Wells, who had 23 points, and GG Jackson, who tossed in 20.
“Obviously it affects how much each individual guy is doing, but the expectations don’t go down,” coach Tuomas Iisalo said of playing shorthanded.
“Overall, when you think about the fatigue, it’s much more than just one game. It’s the cumulative fatigue from game to game. That’s obviously the biggest challenge for us during this stretch, playing four games in five nights, with the travel in between. That’s obviously a brutal stretch, and just trying to find a very good balance with the preparation, not trying to do anything too much and still looking to prepare us as well as we can:”
Burton wound up playing 29 minutes but made only one of his nine field goal attempts.
“We saw Tyler already during the summer with us in the Summer League,” Iisalo said. “He made a very good impression, and that’s why he was one of our E-10s (Exhibit 10 contract players) heading into the training camp and also did well there. It was a no-brainer for us, as a guy who has the basics down after having played with the Hustle.”
The Grizzlies had won nine straight against the Pistons until their first meeting this season. Detroit won on the road, 114-106, on Nov. 3 behind Cunningham’s 33 points and eight assists.
