Detroit Pistons' Lousy Defense Major Headache For Lawrence Frank

Forget about his team’s awful shooting woes. Detroit Pistons coach Lawrence Frank wants to see much better defense from his NBA ball club. The Pistons aren’t 0-5 only because they can’t shoot or dribble the ball. They’re not stopping the other team from shooting or dribbling the ball.

Greg Monroe had a triple double the other night. But his offense was lacking in a 105-103 loss earlier this week to the Sacramento Kings.

But Monroe isn’t the only Piston playing very poor defense right now.

“Until we have a defensive mindset the road is going to be very hard for us to win,” Frank said. “If you look at it for those who like the stat sheet you wind up with 103 points and shoot 49 percent, shoot 36 percent from the three, you have 23 assists, you get to the line 31 times and you lose. Six guys in double figures and you lose. They have 14 offensive rebounds and 56 points in the paint. We had several gambles that led to easy buckets but it comes down to as it is. We have to commit, every single guy that steps on the floor has to defend. Defend. Rebound. No turnovers. Simple formula, hard to do, but we’ll get it.”

It’s not that Franck isn’t focusing on getting his team to be more productive offensively.

“My point is I want to win the game so do our guys,” Frank said. “In order for us to win the game we have to put defense first. That’s it. There were some good things offensively but we have to be able to do both.

“We have it in us to do it. We have yet to do it for sustained stretches. Once we do, we’ll get what we’ll deserve. Right now we’re getting what we deserve.”