Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy had all wheels in motion to assert his promise to the team and media on making changes to the starting lineup come Wednesday night, but the ultimate curveball was thrown his way after Jon Leuer, his new insertion into the starting five, was involved in a car accident hours before tip-off.
While he was fine after the accident, it was concerning enough to get him checked up by the doctors, since airbags were deployed and he was traveling around 45 mph when the accident took place.
Leuer didn't indicate he could play until late in the afternoon, which rendered him a little too late to go over the pre-game walkthrough with the rest of the starters, so Van Gundy chose to keep the lineup the same for another night while the lefty power forward came off the bench.
“He was pretty banged up,” Van Gundy told Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. “That sort of subverted our plans a little bit. Obviously you have to get other guys ready and have to let them know, ‘Hey, you’re starting’ and the whole thing. I don’t want to be doing that at 5:30 when you don’t have to, so we’ll be back with the same guys tonight.”
Leuer said a car swerved in front of his vehicle and was lucky that no one was injured, although he did say he was dealing with minor bumps and bruises, according to Ellis.
Van Gundy declined to reveal who was going to the bench in place of Leuer, but it does seem like it's only an extra night of privilege.
“We’ll just see how things go,” Van Gundy said. “Every day is different. It’s long-term things anyway. I’m sure we’ll sit and talk about it again tomorrow morning.”
So was it Marcus Morris or Tobias Harris?
“That we don’t need to go into,” Van Gundy said.
The Wisconsin alum tied for a team-high 18 points to go with six rebounds, a three-pointer, and a block over 30 minutes of playing time, once again asserting himself as the right choice to crack the starting five.
Morris didn't help his case as a starter, going a horrid 1-of-11 from the field and 0-of-7 from deep, but he did make 10-of-14 free-throws against the you-can't-ever-foul-too-much Memphis Grizzlies.
Harris attempted a season-low seven shots, making three of them for seven points to go with six rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block.
A 98-86 loss to the Grizzlies made it four straight for the Pistons, as their schedule doesn't get any easier hosting the top two teams in the league — first the Golden State Warriors on Friday and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.
Detroit (14-17) is 3-7 in their last 10 games and will need maximum effort in order to salvage some wins in what's left of the year.
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