.jpg)
43 minutes ago
3
One team will come out with the commanding 3-2 NBA Playoffs victory between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons. Clearly, Coach J.B. Bickerstaff wants his squad led by Jalen Duren and Cade Cunningham to be the ones who come out on top. Before any of that happens, they have a certain huge issue that needs patching up. The Pistons head coach named what it was before Game 5.
Bickerstaff takes issue with Pistons' offensive ball movement vs. Cavaliers
The Pistons pride themselves as a team that makes the ball go around. Throughout the 2025-26 regular season, Cade Cunningham and Daniss Jenkins made sure to rotate the ball properly so that other Pistons would be in great positions to score. They averaged 27.8 assists per game using this philosophy but it has fallen quite a bit in the NBA Playoffs.
In their Game 4 loss, the Pistons were only able to notch 23 assists and equaled the totals of the Cavaliers which usually play a heliocentric brand of basketball. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff was not the most pleased with the outcome and their ball movement. The Pistons coach made it known before Game 5, via Hunter Patterson of The Athletic.
"We’ve got to have more ball movement, more making them chase us. Understanding where we create our advantages. Less stagnant, less one-on-one opportunities. Just trying to move them, put the guys in the matchups that we like. Then be aggressive, and the play doesn’t always have to be for me. Now I’m attacking, the help comes and now I can find a spray. We’ll get to more of that," the Pistons head coach declared.
The lack of ball movement also meant that a lot of Pistons had the ball in their hands for a large chunk of the shot clock. It became easier for the Cavaliers defense to poke the ball out and cause a turnover as a result. This was evident with the insane 18 turnovers committed by the Pistons. Cunningham was the main focus and he turned the ball over five times. Duren and Ausar Thompson were the others who got exploited by the Cavaliers defense as they committed four turnovers each.
Every adjustment counts in the NBA Playoffs. The Pistons need to fix this or they risk elimination by Game 6. Can Coach Bickerstaff get Cunningham and Duren to avoid these mistakes?
English (US)