NBA scores 2017: Why the Pistons are working & 13 more things from Wednesday

Detroit’s bench mob is killing it.

Updated Nov 30, 2017, 1:22 PM UTC

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Incredibly, the Detroit Pistons are for real. Maybe not 14-6 real, which puts them on pace for 57 wins, but at least 50 wins real.

They won again Wednesday, dropping 131 points on the admittedly lousy Phoenix Suns, and the joy ride that the Pistons have embarked on doesn’t look like it has any signs of slowing down.

The Pistons have the seventh-best offense and 12th-best defense, the former more surprising than the latter after Detroit’s offense last season finished 25th. Detroit’s only significant roster move was replacing Marcus Morris with Avery Bradley, but they’re also enjoying increased effectiveness from Andre Drummond and Tobias Harris, plus a healthy Reggie Jackson.

What might surprise you is their starting lineup, which hasn’t been good — they’ve been outscored by 43 points in 291 minutes so far this season. Their most effective unit is a seemingly ragtag bench mob featuring Ish Smith, Langston Galloway, Luke Kennard, Eric Moreland (!?), and Anthony Tolliver. (That group has outscored teams by 10.2 points per 100 possessions in 54 minutes this year.)

Those statistics may start to stabilize — the starting five gets slightly better, the bench productive wanes a bit — like we saw on Wednesday, when the starting five was a combined plus-86, easily outpacing the bench unit. (Excluding Smith, who was a team-high plus-25.)

Enjoy this Detroit team, which is deservedly bouncing back to our expectations of them.

The Thunder are ... not improving

Erm. Uhm. They were beat by the Orlando Magic Wednesday. By 13 points! Yeesh. I’m running out of onomatopoeias that can accurately describe this.

Oklahoma City is 8-12, although I should remind everyone that their expected win-loss record is 12-8. Basically, they’ve won big and lost close, this game excluded. Their point differential typically garners a better win total, but Oklahoma City has had offensive problems in the clutch.

None of their stars were bad on Wednesday, but they weren’t good enough — the Thunder shot under 40 percent for the game. More worrisome, at least for me, is the defense. We know that this offense is oozing talent at nearly every position, but their superb early season defense was a great sign to me. I didn’t know they could be that good!

If that’s slipping, as 121 points scored by Orlando could indicate, then things might get dark. I still expect the Thunder to turn this around, and again, some of these losses were unlucky ones that make the situation seem more dire than it really is. Still, we’re a quarter of the way into the season, and the Thunder don’t have forever to figure this out.

Have a 40, Aaron Gordon and LaMarcus Aldridge

Orlando’s 121 outburst was greatly helped by Gordon’s 40 points. He was 13-of-23 from the field, 6-of-12 from downtown, and tacked on 15 rebounds, four assists, and four steals for good measure. Have yourself a damn game!

Leading the evening in scoring was Aldridge, however, with 41 points. He just couldn’t miss, hitting 17-of-24 from the field while making all three of his three-point attempts. That’s good!

Other good stat lines: Kyle Lowry (36 points, 12-of-18 shooting); James Harden (29 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists); Andrew Wiggins (28 points, eight rebounds, five assists, 10-of-18 shooting).

Kristaps survives an assassination attempt

Thankfully he’s OK after a nasty looking ankle sprain.

THE GIF BELOW SHOWS A NOT TOTALLY PLEASANT INJURY.

SO SCROLL PAST IF YOU DON’T WANNA WATCH.

After watching this a few times, I think this only looks as bad as it does because of how his shoe comes off awkwardly. Porzingis was apparently available to return, although he never returned to the floor and didn’t even join the bench. X-rays were negative.

We finally found Ben Simmons’ flaw

The Warriors needed overtime to beat ... the Lakers?

I’m using these four extremely different tweets to make one point about the Warriors: they’re a Rorschach test right now. Any opinion you want to have about them — literally any! — is fine. They’re fine, they’re bad, they’re slipping, they have serious playoff threats, they don’t have serious playoff threats, you name it. I consider that every opinion valid.

But also, like ... we saw the Cavaliers do this all last year, and the Warriors are even better.

Big Baller Blood

I half expected LaVar Ball to sprint out onto the court and throw the offending Warriors player into a headlock. I’m glad he didn’t, though. The blogs would have burnt down from the traffic numbers, and then I wouldn’t have a job, only a fire-damaged former home.