Passive for Pistons

 

Derrick Rose shot around before Wednesday's contest with the Detroit Pistons, but the swelling and blurred vision in his left eye will likely make him miss all of the preseason and the opening regular-season game with Cleveland.  What's encouraging is he stuck around on the court well after the rest of his team retreated to the locker room to prepare for the game.  But even he probably couldn't have helped a poor-shooting, rough-defending, turnover-ridden team in a 114-91 loss.

Fred Hoiberg started big with a jumbo lineup of Nikola Mirotic, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah in the starting lineup.  He even let Taj Gibson see his first preseason action in the first half.  The result was a slow group that couldn't move the ball on offense and became a liability defensively.  Hoiberg went small for the second half which worked well at first, but backfired in the fourth quarter as Detroit scored 38 points.  Bulls turnovers and fast-break points opened it up for the Pistons, who gladly put it out of reach.

E'Twaun Moore led the Bulls with 16 points, a distinction he might not reach again.  He'll probably take it, even if it's just the preseason.  He also earned a team-high four assists and I'm willing to bet most of his stats came from starting at the point and playing 35 minutes.  Still, he should ahead of Kirk Hinrich, who was inactive Wednesday, on the depth chart.

Aaron Brooks and Doug McDermott were 5-of-11 apiece from the field, scoring 13 and 12 respectively.  Bobby Portis shot 4-of-7 for 11 and continued to earn praise from media members, including Pistons TV announcer Rick Mahorn.  The early returns on him keep giving us hope he'll make the other rookies compare their games to him.  Jimmy Butler totaled 10 on a night when he was overshadowed by other players who made a slightly bigger impact, even if it was a losing effort.

Hoiberg will want to take a good look at what his lineups can do when they're both big and small.  It's just one game, but he might not want to go with three bigs at the start.  Examples like tonight are why McDermott, who has scored in double figures in all five exhibitions, is believed to be the favorite to fill in for Mike Dunleavy at the three.  You don't want to play catch-up every night.

Gasol said it best after the game:  "We have good stretches.  And then we have terrible stretches."  This game's comeback and subsequent collapse show we could be in for this a lot.  It would certainly help to have all the injured guys back.  It would be nice if games like this would only happen this time of year, but it'll be tough to avoid them now and then for an 82-game schedule.

The Bulls will get some time off before getting back to action Monday against the Charlotte Hornets.  That will be a time for Hoiberg to try another lineup, provided enough players are healthy.  There's a reason this part of the season exists.  Besides getting players and coaches into game shape, you get to see what might work and what might not.