A weird thing happened in the fourth quarter of Monday’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks. The Pistons had a seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter and instead of going back to the starters to finish out the game, Pistons coach Dwane Casey stayed with the young reserves.
Casey has leaned more to playing the youngsters, especially at the end of games. No Jerami Grant. No Mason Plumlee. Even no Saddiq Bey. It’s resulting in some losses, but it also yielded a confidence-building victory that will help the Pistons down the road.
Of course, there’s the matter of trying to secure a top-five pick in the draft — and the win pushed the Pistons out of the bottom-three spot and the best odds to get the top pick.