Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- The Utah Jazz suffered a 134-106 defeat to the Detroit Pistons, marked by 28 turnovers.
- Coach Will Hardy criticized the team's lack of ball control and physicality against Detroit's strong defense.
- Kyle Filipowski led Utah with 25 points, while Cade Cunningham scored 29 for Detroit.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz walked into the Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 19 having won just five games on the season.
So, of course, Utah hung 48 points in the first quarter en route to a win over the Detroit Pistons.
"It was a growth game for us," Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff said. "At that time, we saw a team with a certain record, and we thought that we could just show up and figure it out in the fourth quarter. But they came out and kicked our ass in the first quarter."
The Pistons remembered. There was no overlooking Utah a second time.
Detroit came into the Delta Center on Monday as one of the hottest teams in the NBA, and the Jazz certainly didn't cool them off.
It was a comedy of errors for the Jazz in a 134-106 loss to the Pistons to close out an odd nine-game home stand.
Utah committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter, 18 in the first half and added another one on their first possession of the third quarter for good measure. In all, the Jazz finished with 28 giveaways — just a dumbfounding number. And all those miscues made for a pretty easy night for the Pistons.
"It's really hard to win if we can't take care of the ball," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
So what were the causes of all those turnovers? Well, with 28 to pick from, you can imagine the answer was pretty long.
Hardy pointed out that the Jazz didn't fight hard enough for space, didn't do a good job playing in straight lines and didn't pass the ball early enough. And against a Pistons team that has had the best defense in the NBA over the last 10 games, that led to plenty of trouble.
Brice Sensabaugh (who played one of his worst games as a pro) had five turnovers — and 0 points and 0 assists. Kyle Filipwoski had four giveaways, but also had a career-high 25 points to help make up for it, and Isaiah Collier and Cody Williams each had three.
In fact, every player that checked in save for Johnny Juzang had at least one turnover on Monday.
"There will be plays that will happen where, based on age — sometimes the other player is more physically developed than we are — those plays don't bother me," Hardy said. "But we still have to maximize everything we've got. And I feel like tonight, for the first half, in particular, I just thought that we were on our heels and that Detroit pushed us around."
Cade Cunningham scored 29 points and had nine assists for Detroit, which won for the 10th time in its last 11 games. This victory continued a remarkable turnaround from last season's historically bad squad.
Former Jazz guard Malik Beasley had 15 points — including two thunderous dunks — and former Utah wing Simone Fontecchio added 10 points in his first trip back to Salt Lake City since being traded last season at the deadline.
Utah was led by Filipowksi, who got his 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting. The former Duke standout added eight rebounds in his 24 minutes.
"I think the work that Kyle has done on his shooting is showing itself," Hardy said. "It's one of the real bright spots — probably just because it stands out in an obvious way — in terms of the development this season. Kyle is developing his perimeter shot changes how he's guarded, changes things that we can do with him on the floor."
The other fun note for Utah: Two-way forward Oscar Tshiebwe completed a rare marathon of a day.
On Sunday, Tshiebwe recorded 16 points and 13 rebounds in a Jazz loss. On Monday afternoon, he had 21 points and 30 rebounds in a Salt Lake City Stars win. And he was back on the court on Monday evening, playing six minutes in the loss to the Pistons. Yep, three games in just over one complete day.
In all, he had 38 points and 46 rebounds during that span. Not bad.
"I've been smiling all day," Hardy said before Monday's loss. "Our locker room, if you go in there right now, everybody's just talking about Oscar's 30 rebounds this morning. I spent the last 10 minutes telling half of our team that they couldn't get 30 rebounds in a high school game tonight if they tried — like, what? That's incredible."
As he left the locker room after Monday night's loss, Tshiebwe smiled and said, "I'm going to sleep so good."
But after Monday's lopsided effort, he might be the only one.
