Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff believes the pressure to win NBA Cup games causes players to treat them like veritable mid-season playoff bouts, writes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic.
On Friday, the Pistons defeated the Pacers 130-16 in an NBA Cup game. With that win, the Pistons improved to 3-0 in East Group B, tied by record with the Bucks. Milwaukee’s +29 point differential in its three wins is only marginally better than Detroit’s +28 as the two teams prepare to match up on Tuesday.
The Pistons subsequently had to travel to Philadelphia, where they fell in a blowout to the lowly Sixers on Saturday. Citing travel issues and the challenge of playing a back-to-back set that includes an NBA Cup contest, Bickerstaff said his squad was worn out for Saturday’s game.
“I mean, our guys were exhausted,” Bickerstaff said following the Philadelphia defeat. “We sat on the runway last night until 2:30, 3:00 in the morning. Got home at 4:00 in the morning in the snowstorm. They drove home, by the time they got to bed it was 5:00 a.m, 5:30 a.m. I thought they went out and they dug down… They tried to give it what they had. We just didn’t have it tonight, and that’s fair. They tried but today was just a rough day for them.”
Later during his post-game remarks, Bickerstaff advocated for the league to make some tweaks to its NBA Cup scheduling, specifically in regard to how it doles out back-to-back sets of games if one is part of the in-season tournament.
“I’ll scream it to the rooftops, and I hope people will pay attention and they’ll listen,” Bickerstaff said. “I think the league has done a wonderful thing by adding the Cup series. Obviously, as time goes on, there will be adjustments that are made to it, but you should not play a back-to-back after one of those games. The guys are competing their tails off to go out and win at a high level, and it’s just extremely difficult to come back the next night and have to play a back-to-back to follow it up.
“Hopefully, it’s something that they’ll look at. I’m not a scheduling expert by any means. I just think it’s extremely difficult for guys to go out and compete at that intensity that we’re asking them to.”
Patterson notes as a caveat that Detroit has gone 1-4 on the second night of back-to-backs this year, regardless of whether or not an NBA Cup game was part of the set.
Silver is going to fire you
I can only wish him good luck in getting the NBA to get rid of back to backs. Information on the negative effects of back to backs has been around for many years, yet they continue. Obviously, there is too much money at stake because the only sure way to eliminate them is to play less regular season games.
I think he’s just saying they shouldn’t have a b2b after a cup game. Not getting rid of b2b games in general
Well, whats his solution to this problem? We have known this problem for decades, until someone comes up with a solution the nba is happy with this problem will persist. JB is being useless here.
“Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff believes the pressure to win NBA Cup games causes players to treat them like veritable mid-season playoff bouts, writes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic.“
Pistons don’t know this feeling. So stop it lol.
And I do agree. And yes a cup gm should not be part of back to back gms. That’s just respect for Cup format. Wake up NBA.
Maybe more players need to treat all games as a playoff game. It might result in their teams winning more.
“Pistons don’t know this feeling.” JB does. and they’ve got several veterans who absolutely know the feeling (THJ, Beasley, Tobias)
Again Pistons got no clue what that feeling is. What part of Pistons don’t you get. Must be a Piston player lol.
Pistons more successful historically as a franchise than the Knicks.
Ahhhh…. “So we’re expected to go out and compete… play HARD (with intensity!), and try to WIN a ballgame two days in a row?… Yeah, we gotta talk to the NBA about this!”
Cup games are different. Point differential plays a factor in advancement to the next round. Instead of trying to win by 5, teams are trying to win by 55. If all teams play a back to back following a cup game, that’s fair. Otherwise, competitive balance is disrupted.
So don’t try hard every game to win? Cup games are regular season games with an added monetary value. If these millionaires need additional cash to motivate them, then that tells me they don’t care about the game that much.
I hate the idea of the cup and the cash prize.
Use your squad depth. And if you don’t have squad depth, you won’t progress.
It’s not rocket science.
I was thinking the same thing. Use your depth on back to back. Give the scrubs a little run.
He absolutely has Silver by the balls here. If you’re going to be dishing out 100k fines like candy over players participating in the NBA Cup, you better make sure the scheduling, which the league controls, is valuing the Cup product as well.