Philly 89, Detroit 69: Stan Van Gundy goes off after loss

PHILADELPHIA – You can't say Stan Van Gundy didn't warn the media.

As the Detroit Pistons coach walked to the interview area Wednesday night following his team's embarrassing 89-69 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, he said he didn't know what the media expected him to say after this stinker.

Then he proceeded to give the media one minute, 14 seconds of Van Gundy unplugged.

"We weren't ready to play," Van Gundy said. I don't think I've ever coached a game where one team's effort was that much better than my team's effort. It was a joke. They played so much harder. They ran harder, they cut harder, they drove harder, they defended harder, they were into us more, they went to the boards harder. Everything. It was embarrassing and humiliating and I told them in there, 'I'm embarrassed as a coach that I did that poor a job and if they're not embarrassed, they don't belong in the NBA.'"

BOX SCORE

OK, what about the perimeter guys going 8-for-44 from the field?

"Yes, that's exactly what they were," Van Gundy said his voice rising. "I can live with that, it's terrible, you probably can't win with that, but I can live with that.

"But the lack of effort, the lack of effort and the lack of force to take care of the ball, the lack of screening to execute, the lack of speed up and down the floor. Just the total lack of force and effort, I can't live with that. Guys missing shots … Hey, look when you come not ready to play, you're not going to make shots."

And with that, Van Gundy left the media area.

You can understand the anger. The lifeless Pistons (17-30) quickly fell behind by 20 midway through the first quarter and fought uphill all night.

The team was a wreck offensively in shooting 30.7% -- the worst shooting performance since 28% night in a 30-point loss to the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 23. 2009.

The team kept firing away from three-point land in launching 20 attempts, making only two.

Throw in a season-high 20 turnovers and allowing the 76ers to control the glass by a 48-38 margin, and you have the makings of a total stinker.

And suddenly all the good feelings of the recent 11-2 stretch have left the franchise. They have lost five of six and have dropped three straight since losing Brandon Jennings for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. They have averaged 17.2 turnovers over the last five games.

Greg Monroe led the Pistons 20 points and 11 rebounds. He agreed with Van Gundy's assessment.

"It seems like when we had nothing to lose, it was easy," Monroe said. "Now that we've actually put ourselves in position to do something, we kind of lost focus. I just think we have to get that hunger back,"

The 76ers (9-37) weren't much better offensively with 21 turnovers, but they did shoot 47.4% in getting their second victory of the season over the Pistons.

Robert Covington scored 19 points on 4-for-5 shooting from three-point land and Michael Carter Williams almost had a triple double with 14 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds for the 76ers.

Contact Vince Ellis at vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.

Be sure that you follow Freep Sports on Twitter (@freepsports) and Instagram and like us on Facebook.