The Truth About Adjustments In The NBA Playoffs

The Detroit Pistons just suffered a gut-wrenching Game 3 loss at the hands of the New York Knicks, putting them in a 1-2 hole for the series. Along with the feeling of defeat, the next few days will be filled with the voices of pundits pontificating over adjustments the team can make heading into Game 3.

However, what the average layperson often misses when prescribing these changes is the degree to which teams really change what they are doing in the middle of a playoff series.

In 2022, former NBA coach and current TV analyst Stan Van Gundy took to Twitter to discuss the disparity between what people believe coaches should do in the middle of a series and how it actually works.

“Just because you don‘t recognize the adjustments the NBA coach you are criticizing is making doesn’t mean that he isn‘t making any adjustments,” Van Gundy wrote. “And sometimes, no matter how many adjustments a coach makes, it doesn’t change the result because the other team is better.”

There are a few reasons why adjustments are usually so minuscule. First off, the NBA is a make-or-miss game. Sometimes, a loss can be the result of a team not making enough shots or the other team hitting too many. Do you really want to change what has been working all season because of one or two games where the ball didnt bounce your way？

Second, it is hard to drastically change the way you play in just a couple of days. Most major alterations to a teams scheme require hours of practice and, oftentimes, different personnel. Neither of these things are really feasible in the middle of a playoff series.

Lastly, as sad as it can be to admit it, like Van Gundy noted, sometimes you just don‘t have enough ponies in the stable to outrun your opposition. So, it doesn’t matter how many adjustments you make. At the end of the day, you need talent to win.

For the Pistons, they have proven that the last portion isn‘t the case here. Through three games, they have gone blow for blow with the fifth-best team record-wise in the entire NBA. They can win this series with the correct adjustments. Still, they don’t plan on re-inventing the wheel prior to Sundays Game 4 showdown.

“It‘s going to be small changes. We’re just fine-tuning things,” Cade Cunningham told reporters during the Game 3 postgame press conference. “At this point, both teams are going to play the way they play. We aren‘t going to change. We are going to maintain our system. It’s going to be about making small changes that make it easier to do what we like to do.”

What Will Those Changes Look Like？

In Game 3, the Pistons scored 13 fastbreak points. That is a modest output, but its a far cry from the pace they normally play with. For the regular season, they averaged 18.5 fastbreak points per game (per NBA.com). And before you say it, yes, the game does slow down in the postseason. However, the Pistons averaged 18.5 fast break points in their first two games of this series. So, they are clearly capable of getting to that level against the Knicks.

To do this, the Pistons will likely emphasize the importance of hit-ahead passes and running wide on the break in practice over the next few days.

Theyll also need to generate more stops to be able to get out and run, which will involve tightening up their defense.

“We got to eliminate the easy shots,” Tim Hardaway Jr. emphasized in his postgame press conference.

One guy the Pistons really let get loose was Karl-Anthony Towns, who answered concerns about his quiet second half of Game 2 by scoring 31 points on just 18 field goal attempts.

“We figured out that Karl-Anthony Towns was trailing the play to get open threes,” Hardaway explained.

The Pistons will need to be more cognizant about matching up with everyone in transition, particularly one of the greatest big man shooters the game has ever seen. This will allow them to take away easy shots, generate more stops, and, of course, get more opportunities to score early in the shot clock.

In any event, none of these ‘adjustments’ are massive deviations from the way the Pistons have played all year. They are minor tweaks that are intended to help them win a few more possessions and get those few extra points they need to turn a loss into a win.

But rest assured, adjustments are happening between each playoff game that is played – from both teams. You just need to keep your eyes open because they are always a lot more subtle than you think.