Gonna be a shorter one. This game was so bad to watch as a fan that I actually did work for Monday on a Sunday instead of watching every minute.

Anyway…

Back to the old grind of losing 3+ games before winning another one. This game was frustrating as fuck to watch as a fan because despite being down 9 points at halftime, Orlando managed to stretch their lead out to 18 by the end of the third.

Why was that? Well it’s tough to put a pin in it when there’s truly that much that was bad about this game. I don’t even really want to write anything but I’m attempting to build a habit.

I’d put most of the issues (beyond coaching - because DET fans HAVE to blame Monty) on the starting lineup of Cade/Ivey/Thompson/Stewart/Duren. Simply put, there isn’t enough shooting on the floor to play consistently through rough patches where spacing can give you driving lanes. Even in a night where Detroit limited themselves to 12 TO’s to Orlando’s 20, the lack of spacing made it difficult to do anything with them.

Just to add insult to injury, the Bench which has often drawn ire for being awful and generally giving games away, played much better than the starting 5 tonight. Fournier and Fontecchio alone had more points than any of our starting 5, played better defense on the interior (the worst part of the night by FAR).

What I saw that I appreciated was a shortened bench rotation. Ivey and Stewart in particular spent more time with the bench than I recall in recent games and I imagine that enabled the unit to function more on offense and defense thanks to Stewart playing the 5 and generally knowing what to do compared to Wiseman - who barely played tonight (thank Jesus).

In my complete amateur opinion, it seems like Fontecchio needs to be in the starting 5 either in place of Ausar or in place of Stewart. I’d say pushing Stewart to the bench 5 role rather than starting 4 makes sense long-term. Cade and Ivey need spacing, they need shooting or at least the threat of shooting that Stewart justifiably isn’t getting from other teams. I’m not gonna talk about the offensive threat of Ausar…

For the love of god and all that is holy I hope they bounce back against Brooklyn or else I might just lose that last little bit of hope I had left.