Pistons at Chicago Bulls 11-10-14

Detroit Pistons forward Josh Smith (6), shown here against the Chicago Bulls' Kirk Hinrich, had a huge game until a fateful decision to take an errant late-game 3-pointer.

(AP Photo)

WASHINGTON -- Josh Smith wouldn't take that shot again. He promised.

Smith is the Detroit Pistons' most polarizing, highest-paid and quite possibly best player.

He also recognizes that his shot selection sometimes raises the ire of team and onlookers alike, and his errant 3-pointer in a critical situation earlier this week was a mistake he said he would not make again.

It came Monday at Chicago, with the Pistons down by four points and needing a basket, when Smith uncorked a long jumper with 10 seconds on the shot clock and just more than two minutes left in the game.

He missed, and Jimmy Butler's dagger 3-pointer on the other end sent the Bulls to a 102-91 win.

"Trying to do a home run instead of hitting a single, and I was just swinging for the fences to be able to try to just quiet the crowd down," Smith said after the Pistons' shootaround today here, where they play the Washington Wizards at 7 tonight. "But you learn from those mistakes.

"I watched the film. I constantly beat myself up in the head for it. And next opportunity I have, I'll approach the situation differently."

After that game, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy declined to answer when asked if Smith, at the end of a 19-point, 11-rebound, four-assist, three-block virtuoso, tried to shoulder too much of the burden.

Two days later, the focus of shootaround was staying true to game-finishing principles, and doing so night after night, even after it fails from time to time.

The Pistons have been close or ahead in the fourth quarter of every game yet are 2-5. They lost 14 times last year in games they led after three quarters.

"People always start to question guys caring, and all these other intangible things. I don't buy that," Van Gundy said. "I think a lot of that comes out, 'I want to win, and so I'm going to get it done, I'm going to knock this down and cut this lead to one,' instead of trusting if we come down and execute what we're supposed to do, then more times than not it's going to work out."

So why does the same thing happen repeatedly in late-game situations?

"Because they haven't seen it work here and there's not that kind of trust," Van Gundy said.

He added that overcoming late-game trust issues "from a psychological standpoint is the biggest challenge" the Pistons face right now and will require "incredible mental toughness ... because every experience makes it more ingrained."

Van Gundy noted that of the Pistons' five free-agent signees this summer, only D.J. Augustin and Caron Butler are active and healthy, and the holdover Pistons are the ones with the bad habits they need help breaking.

"So that's what I said to them today, like, 'Jonas (Jerebko), Greg (Monroe), you've been here four years, it hasn't worked yet, why are you going to believe it's going to work now?' " Van Gundy said. "But the problem is when you don't -- and we can see it in crucial times in the game, especially -- guys just sort of go their own way.

"It's not because guys don't (care). They all want to win. But it's the lack of trust that things are going to work, so I'm going to try to do it on my own and hit a home run, I'm going to change up what I do defensively."

Smith, playing extensively at small forward again because of perimeter injuries, has cut his 3-point attempts by more than half, from last year's 3.4 to 1.6 per game.

Even Smith's more understanding critics who don't question why he shoots them -- he is a 27.8-percent career 3-point shooter, and 9.1 percent (1 of 11) this year -- are dismayed by when he shoots them, which in Monday's example he clearly understood.

"We have a lot of 3-point shooters on this team," Smith said. "I think my strengths are being able to penetrate and get those guys open looks from the perimeter."

He has done that effectively, and his mid-range game hasn't been an issue.

If not for a puzzling difficulty finishing at the basket, even Smith's affinity for long jump shots might be overlooked, because that threat helps him to create opportunities off the dribble, where his creativity has been outstanding and his 4.3-assist average is a career-high pace.

"I'm confident," with the jump shot, Smith said. "I know that if I don't fade, if I go straight up and down with it, shoot it with confidence, that the majority of my shots will go in.

"I've just got to stay focused on not necessarily concerning myself with the jump shot, keep mixing it up, keep driving it to the hole, getting to the free-throw line, and everything else will open up."

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