Rock Bottom?

Folks, it pains me to say it, but our Stones were manhandled by the Charlotte Bobcats. The previously 10-16 Bobcats. Raymond Felton, Gerald Wallace, and Stephen Jackson scored at will in the first half, running circles around a lethargic Piston defense.

The Pistons mounted a token surge in the 4th quarter, but they never trimmed the lead to less than 10. It was perhaps the worst display of Detroit basketball I've seen since Lindsey Hunter's rookie season. No joke.

The loss brings the losing streak to 5 games, on the heels of a 5 game winning streak, which was on the heels of a seven game losing streak. I can see three reasons for the return to dreadful hoops:

1. Tired legs. This is the excuse Kelser offered after the game. He thinks the Piston injuries have caught up to them, and their depth is severely exhausted. Watching Austin Daye struggle to make a simple pass leads me to believe there is truth to this. A few weeks ago, Daye was the next Danny Granger. Now he's more Danny Ferry. Tay, Rip, and Little Ben can't get healthy quick enough.
2. The New Orleans loss broke their will. This is what I postulated after that loss. They haven't been the same since. Dreadful energy and slow-footed defense. Yet, the argument against this excuse is that the Pistons didn't play all that well prior to the New Orleans game. They were pretty bad against Houston and in their final win against GS.
3. Kuester actually sucks and the players stopped listening. This excuse might actually have some merit. A few games ago, Kuester called out Stuckey, and perhaps that didn't sit well with the rest of the team. Stuckey did play pretty damn well against Charlotte - the only Piston to do so. He scored 20 points, hitting an impressive array of difficult shots. But the team has ZERO flow on offense. Their assist totals - a problem all season - are reaching new lows. Teams have little difficulty suffocating the Piston offense in crunch time, when the Pistons are lucky enough to even make it to crunch time. Earlier in the season, the Pistons did seem to work the ball around and score some points. Now, we're back to Curry-ball. What's the deal, Q?

The Pistons are 26th in the league in total assists. The 27th team? The Bobcats, who had 22 assists versus only 12 for the Pistons tonight. That's a problem. In other dreadful stat news, the Pistons are now 27th in the league in 3pt shooting %. So, why do they continue to launch 3s? Lastly, the Stones find themselves 2nd in the league in total fouls committed. Ouch. This is somewhat a factor of their swarming defense. Unfortunately, all those fouls tell me their swarming defense is now more of a hacking defense.

Is there hope? I honestly don't know. Rip and Tay have missed a quarter of the season already, and Gordon's not far behind. Bynum and Villanueva are playing injured, and it shows. Charlie V scored 4 points tonight, with 3 turns. I got tickets for their game tomorrow against the Raptors. I'm hoping for a miracle.