As his Pistons continue to improve into a frisky play-in-caliber team this season, guard Jaden Ivey has grown increasingly more comfortable in clutch moments, observes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic.
Patterson writes that the Pistons have gone 8-4 in games where Ivey scores 19 or more points. During the last 15 seconds of Detroit’s 114-113 upset win over the Kings this week, a confident Ivey scored six of his 19 points — including his second game-winning bucket of the year.
“He knows how much work he puts in,” new Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “His teammates knew and trusted in him. We could have taken a tougher, contested (3-pointer), but we saw him in the corner and we made the play to him. He went ahead and knocked it down and then had the confidence to knock down the free throw and help us win the game.”
At 14-18 on the year, Detroit currently occupies the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference. The team has also already matched its total win tally from 2023/24, and it’s still December.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Ivey isn’t the only young Pistons guard on the rise this year. His backcourt mate Cade Cunningham has also taken major strides, writes Patterson in a separate piece. Cunningham is currently enjoying his best season, while on a suddenly scrappy Detroit squad. He’s averaging a career highs of 24.0 points, 9.7 assists, 6.7 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks, along with 0.8 steals a night. The former No. 1 draft pick has logged six triple-doubles, third-most in the league this year. “I’ve made some plays this year that I haven’t seen from myself in a long time,” Cunningham said. “I’ll watch a full game, and I’m like, ‘I was really hooping that game.’ I think it’s just the steady growth for me. I don’t really put a cap on myself as far as what I’m able to be. I just want to continue to get better.”
- Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley has taken a significant leap as a jump shooter, which has paid dividends thus far this season, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “Coaches and teammates, they’ve been really on me,” Mobley told Fedor. “Every time I turn down the shot, they tell me to shoot it again and again. Having coaches and teammates like that just helps your confidence. I’m gonna keep letting ‘em fly.” Mobley is notching 43.7% three-point shooting on 2.4 attempts a night, a career mark.
- Bucks All-Star point guard Damian Lillard recently sat out a pair of games with a right calf injury, followed by a two-game absence due to an illness. He made his return in a narrow 116-112 defeat to Chicago on Saturday. Afterward, the 6’2″ vet acknowledged that he felt physically okay, but was still dealing with lingering effects from his illness, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “I felt physically fine like moving around, but as the game went on, you just feel a little weak and I haven’t played,” Lillard said. “Still a little bit sick, feeling it in my chest and coughing a little bit, but I expected it to be like that coming into the game because I haven’t played.” He chipped in a 29-point, 12-assist double-double, though he didn’t score at all in the game’s final 5:07.