After allowing 121 points in a five-point loss to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, Detroit Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson ripped his team’s defense. From Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:
“Hell, naw; y’all watching,” Jackson said when asked if the defensive struggles were schematic.
“It’s beyond schematic. People just walk into the paint. People are literally shooting warmup shots that’s like drill work. It’s a joke. It’s something that we gotta do. Coach can’t do nothing about it. It don’t matter if he has a scheme or not or not a scheme. If we were to play pick-up (basketball), I would hope so somebody would kick us out the gym.”
The Pistons struggled to contain Paul George, who scored 32 points on an efficient 10-17 shooting from the field, including 2-3 from long range. George also sunk all 10 of his free throw attempts. Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy spoke about his team’s inability to guard George:
“We haven’t been able to guard that guy in two years,” Van Gundy said. “There’s a lot of good players in this league and a lot of them have had good games against us as they will, but occasionally we’ve been able to limit them.
“He’s been a guy that we have not been able to limit at all. By the time we play them in (February), we gotta come up with something.”
