The good news for the Detroit Pistons is they won’t have to wait long to try to correct their struggles shooting and defending the 3-pointer.
The bad news is their next opponent is the Golden State Warriors, a prolific 3-point-shooting team.
The Pistons will look to salvage a split from a back-to-back road set Friday night when they visit the Warriors in San Francisco in the first clash of the season between the teams.
The Pistons suffered their first road loss of the month Thursday when they fell to the Phoenix Suns 114-96. The Warriors most recently played Wednesday, when they rode a successful outside shooting performance to a 140-124 win over the Utah Jazz.
While the Pistons have gone 9-4 in January to continue cementing themselves as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference, Thursday’s loss continued a pair of discouraging trends for Detroit, which is 5 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Boston Celtics and New York Knicks.
The Pistons shot just 20.7% (6 of 29) from 3-point range Thursday and are shooting 28.5% (35 of 123) from beyond the arc over the past four games, a span in which they’ve gone 2-2.
“I think we’re getting good looks, we’re doing the right things to generate shots for one another,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Right now they’re just not going down.”
Detroit has allowed at least one opposing player to shoot 50% or better from long distance in each of the past three games. Dillon Brooks (4 of 7) and Collin Gillespie (5 of 11) both thrived from 3-point land Thursday, when the Suns led for the final 44-plus minutes.
The Pistons beat the Sacramento Kings 139-116 on Sunday even though the Kings’ Nique Clifford (2 of 4), Russell Westbrook (2 of 3), Malik Monk (3 of 5) and Keon Ellis (3 of-6) shot a combined 55.5% from beyond the arc. The Denver Nuggets’ Spencer Jones was 4 of 5 from 3-point range onTuesday, when Detroit earned a 109-107 win.
The Warriors, whose NBA-leading average of 44.8 3-point attempts per game puts them on pace for 3,669 this season, turned the usual frantic pace into their highest-scoring effort of the campaign Wednesday.
Golden State hit 15 first-half threes, its most of the season, and finished with 23 3-pointers, one shy of the single-game high set four times previously.
Seven players — including Stephen Curry, the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-pointers — hit at least two shots from long distance Wednesday. Will Richard and Buddy Hield each went 3-for-6 from deep off the bench for Golden State, whose reserves hit 48% (12 of 25) of their 3-point attempts.
The balanced attack was encouraging for the Warriors, who have gone 2-3 since losing Jimmy Butler III to a season-ending right knee injury Jan. 19.
“Overnight the season changes, the team changes,” said Golden State starting shooting guard Moses Moody, who was 5 of 9 from 3-point territory on Wednesday “And like any other process, you’ve got to figure it out over time. That’s the process we’re in now. I’m glad we’re able to get those wins under our belt and continue to figure it out.”
