Vince Ellis

Detroit Free Press

Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy is talking about going back to the drawing board.

Reggie Jackson is saying that’s not needed with the team’s putrid defensive effort.

It was another night and another Palace loss Tuesday night, as Indiana Pacers star Paul George scored 32 points on Tuesday night to send the Pistons to a 121-16 loss at the Palace.

But the Pistons’ had trouble with a team which shot 58.1% from the field and was 9-for-16 from three-point range.

Throw in a 26-for-30 night at the line and the Pistons didn’t stop the Pacers from doing anything.

“I thought our closeouts were bad; we just left people open,” Van Gundy said. “It’s like we hope people are gonna miss early on. We wait to see if we’re gonna have to make the effort to closeout.”

So it didn’t matter when the Pistons (16-21) battled back from a 15-point deficit in the second quarter and a late 10-point deficit to cut it to three points with 19 seconds remaining.

Monta Ellis free throws with 16.9 seconds accounted for the final score and the Pistons have lost seven of their last nine at the Palace.

Since Van Gundy replaced Tobias Harris in the starting lineup with Jon Leuer, the Pistons have yielded 30-plus first quarters in four out of six game.

The Pacers (18-18) scored 36 points and blazed away at a 61.1% clip in the first quarter.

Van Gundy said he is again toying with the idea of changing the starting lineup and looking at defensive schemes.

“I don’t know,” Van Gundy said. “We gotta go back and look and decide – not only who to play, but what we need to do, what we need to work on. We just haven’t been able to stop anybody.”

Jackson said that schemes aren’t the issue – the players are the issue.

“Hell, naw; y’all watching,” Jackson said when asked if the defensive struggles were schematic.

“It’s beyond schematic. People just walk into the paint. People are literally shooting warmup shots that’s like drill work. It’s a joke. It’s something that we gotta do. Coach can’t do nothing about it. It don’t matter if he has a scheme or not or not a scheme. If we were to play pick-up (basketball), I would hope so somebody would kick us out the gym.”

Once again, the Pistons had no answer for George, who was 10-for-17 from the field and perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

George is averaging 30 points against the Pistons in their last four meetings. Van Gundy was so desperate that he turned to Jackson – who is yielding seven inches – to try to stop George.

“We haven’t been able to guard that guy in two years,” Van Gundy said. “There’s a lot of good players in this league and a lot of them have had good games against us as they will, but occasionally we’ve been able to limit them.

“He’s been a guy that we have not been able to limit at all. By the time we play them in (February), we gotta come up with something.”

Jackson scored 20 points and added 12 assists and five rebounds. Andre Drummond had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Tobias Harris scored 22 points off the Pistons bench.

It was another slow start for the Pistons, as the Pacers jumped to a 22-11 lead. The Pacers made four of their first six triple attempts.

But the Pistons answered with a 7-0 run to prevent another blowout loss.

But defense was non-existent for both sides.

The Pacers shot 61% from the field, 86% from three-point range and got to the line nine times in taking a 36-28 lead after the first quarter.

But Jackson’s 13 points and seven assists in the first half helped keep the Pistons around and they only trailed by six – 66-60 – at halftime.

The Pistons took several leads in the third quarter – the last coming with 44.4 seconds left when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made three free throws to give his team a 92-89 lead.

But the game was tied at 92 going into the fourth quarter.

Backup center Aron Baynes missed the game with left ankle sprain, opening the door for minutes for fan favorite Boban Marjanovic.

He played 11 minutes and scored four points and grabbed four rebounds. The crowd received a thrill when he dunked in the second quarter.

“He’s a really talented offensive player, very, very skilled with great size,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said before the game. “The challenge is going to be his move laterally. They’re working hard on it and you have to give Boban a lot of credit, he’s working hard on it. That’s really his challenge. If he can get just a little bit better in that area, his offensive skills are significant.”

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