Pistons' Paul Reed usage couldn't be more confusing
Detroit may have done something no one has ever done before.
Pistons' Paul Reed usage couldn't be more confusing originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . There's pretty much no chance anyone has ever done what Paul Reed did on Wednesday night for the Detroit Pistons .
Pistons head coach J. B. Bickerstaff didn't put the undersized center into the game for three quarters.
He then played Reed for the entire 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, and all five minutes of overtime. Reed played the final 17 minutes of Detroit's Game 5 loss after not appearing in the game's first 36 minutes. At some point, I'm gonna need to understand why JB Bickerstaff refuses to go to Paul Reed in the first half of a basketball game.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) May 14, 2026 MORE: Why Warriors would have to trade Draymond Green in a Giannis deal Reed had only played in the second half of Game 4, too, when he had some highly impactful minutes to keep Detroit in the game. It seemed that his performance in the prior game might earn him some earlier time in Game 5, but that didn't happen. Jalen Duren hasn't been good in this series, but he'll continue to start at the center position for the Pistons.