Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy aired out his frustration with his ball club after an embarrassing 113-82 loss to the Chicago Bulls last night.
Detroit had put forth back-to-back subpar efforts in decisive losses this week and Van Gundy has obviously had enough.The often animated coach was particularly blunt with his assessment of the Pistons’ performance Monday night and didn’t attempt to mince his words.
“It was a disgusting performance,” Van Gundy said. “By all of us, me included. It was unprofessional, embarrassing, humiliating, whatever you want to say. It was terrible.”
Van Gundy reached his boiling point, tearing into his team for holding a players only meeting following their Sunday night loss to the Indiana Pacers.
“Team meeting, my ass, Like I said before, that stuff means nothing. It’s what you do on the court. Talking’s easy,” he said. “It looks to me like a lack of effort and a lack of heart. And if you don’t play hard, you’re not going to have any confidence, things aren’t going to go [your way]. We looked like we were hoping the game would be easy tonight, and it wasn’t and we just caved.”
To add insult to injury, there seemed to be some degree of discord between the head coach and his and point guard Reggie Jackson following his return to the court on December 4th after battling knee tendinitis.
Van Gundy stated, Weve played eight games, seven of them against teams below .500, and were 3-5, so theres no question were not as good as we were. Thats just a fact. If youre asking in the eight games, Have we gotten better? Hell no, weve gotten worse.
Jackson’s response to the struggles?
“I dont call the plays. Plays are called, we run them and I attack in pick-and-roll situations.
After displaying much promise after making a playoff appearance last season as the eighth seed, Detroit has descended below the .500 mark to a 14-16 record after consecutive losses.
