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Casey sends Pistons to finishing school after struggling to score inside early

AUBURN HILLS – Dwane Casey says the Pistons are playing “October basketball” – a reference to common early-season gaffes, compounded by the installation of new systems at both ends – but after Monday’s practice they played a little October football.

Casey came into the job aware of the fact the Pistons finished 29th in the NBA a season ago in their ability to finish shots at the rim. So he made that a point of emphasis in training camp, including requiring the entire team to do pushups if a teammate missed a layup in practice.

But after they made just 20 of 47 shots in the paint against Chicago – and still won, 118-116, when Ish Smith made a shot at the rim to win it – he doubled down.

Staffers armed with football-like pads formed a gauntlet against which Pistons ballhandlers were required to drive through the lane and attempt to score.

“They had an issue with finishing last year. It’s something we talked about, worked on – it’s still around,” Casey said. “We’ve got to concentrate on finishing through contact, through physicality. It’s a phenomenon.”

The exception has been Blake Griffin, off to an exceptional start. Casey has Griffin to hold up as an example of maintaining a focus on the rim despite the sea of arms blocking the view.

“He probably should’ve played football at Oklahoma,” Casey said. “He can take hits, bang and still finish. We’ve got to get everybody with that mentality.”

Griffin’s 33-point, 12-rebound, five-assist, zero-turnover performance at Chicago kept the Pistons unbeaten in two games, but the schedule ramps up this week – in quality and quantity. After having four days off between the end of preseason and last week’s season opener, then two days after both the first and second games, the Pistons get three games over the next five days – two of them against teams expected to battle Casey’s last stop, Toronto, at the top of the East, Philadelphia and Boston.

That’s a rhythm more comfortable for NBA teams and coaches, but Casey didn’t mind the extra practice time as players go through the transition phase with a new coach.

“Those situations that we’re not executing, we work on them, talk about them,” he said. “Now is the time to do it. Some of it may be my fault with the language barrier, communication. I don’t know, but we’ve got to get better in those situations.”