Pistons HC urges NBA to reconsider back-to-backs involving Cup games

Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff believes that the pressure to win NBA Cup games causes players to treat them like veritable mid-season playoff bouts, writes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Bickerstaff noted that his Detroit squad had been worn out in playing back-to-back sets of games on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, the Pistons vanquished the Pacers in a triumphant 130-106 NBA Cup game victory. 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.

The team subsequently had to travel to Philadelphia, where it fell in a blowout to the lowly Sixers.

“I mean, our guys were exhausted,” Bickerstaff said following the Philadelphia defeat. “We sat on the runway last night until 2:30 (a.m.), 3 o’clock in the morning. Got home at 4 o’clock in the morning in the snowstorm. They drove home, by the time they got to bed it was 5 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.”

Elsewhere during his postgame remarks, Bickerstaff advocated for the league making some tweaks to its NBA Cup scheduling, specifically in regards to how it doles out back-to-back sets of games if one is part of NBA Cup competition.

“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.”

Patterson notes as a caveat that Detroit has gone 1-4 on the second night of back-to-backs this year, regardless of whether a NBA Cup game was played the night before or not.