<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;LOS ANGELES \u2014 As a promising 5\u20131 start gave way to a fourth straight loss, Reggie Jackson, the highest-paid player on Detroit\u2019s roster, gave up his spot in the closing lineup to a second-round pick who entered Sunday\u2019s action with exactly one made basket to his name. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy benched Jackson, his $80\u2013million man, for the final 4:54 of a 97\u201385 loss to the Lakers in favor of Spencer Dinwiddie, who hadn\u2019t seen the court in nearly two weeks. Afterward, he minced no words over Jackson\u2019s performance.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTonight his decision\u2013making was terrible,\u201D Van Gundy said. \u201CHe was trying to go behind his back in the middle of the lane. Up in the air. He just had a really bad night. \u2026 His decision\u2013making was bad. Guys are going to have bad nights and he had an awful one tonight.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;MAHONEY: Fundamentals: Pistons\u2019 formula centers on Andre Drummond&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The move was fully justified on basketball terms: Jackson tallied just nine points on 4-for-11 shooting, and he compounded his worst scoring performance of the season by committing five turnovers against just three assists in 24 minutes. Dinwiddie, by contrast, shook off the rust from five consecutive DNP-CDs to post 17 points and four assists, making him one of the few bright spots during an unsightly loss to one of the league\u2019s worst teams.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The straws that broke Van Gundy\u2019s back came in the fourth quarter. Jackson reentered the game with just under 10 minutes remaining and the wheels promptly started falling off. In fairly quick succession, he lost his handle in the middle of traffic, he threw a pass out of bounds, he bricked a deep, contested three-pointer, he got stuck in the air and threw the ball to the Lakers, and then he forced up a contested midrange shot that failed to draw iron.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201C[Jackson had] two quick turnovers and then he tried to isolate and post up, took a bad shot,\u201D Van Gundy continued. \u201CHis decision\u2013making was off and we went back with Spencer.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All told, Detroit managed just two points in nearly seven minutes of fourth\u2013quarter action as L.A. won the final period 31\u201319. Remember, this was a Lakers team who entered Sunday at 1\u20138 with a putrid defense that had conceded an average of 106.2 points per game. But the Pistons, who were on the second night of a back-to-back and playing the final game of a six\u2013game road trip, couldn\u2019t manage to flow through the sieve, shooting just 36.5% on the night.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u200B\u200BVan Gundy said perhaps Jackson was \u201Cworn down\u201D and battling \u201Cmental fatigue\u201D from the road trip and his \u201Cheavy workload,\u201D which has seen him post a career-high 31.6 usage rate entering Sunday. The fifth-year guard waved off those suggestions while agreeing with his coach that he mad \u201Cbad decisions\u201D with the ball.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CNo excuses,\u201D Jackson said flatly afterward. \u201CI played too poor probably for us to get over the hump. It\u2019s hard to bounce back when your starting point guard plays that bad. I\u2019ve got to move on and learn from my experience tonight.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Little was working for a Detroit team who has wins over Atlanta and Chicago under its belt, or for Jackson, who drew plenty of praise by scoring a career-high 40 points against Portland one week ago. Van Gundy said his offense was \u201Ca little bit of a mess right now,\u201D and added that Detroit\u2019s 2\u20134 road trip was \u201Cawful\u201D in light of the four straight losses.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This isn\u2019t the first time this season the straight-talking Van Gundy has jabbed at his players, and Jackson in particular. After a preseason loss to the Nets, Van Gundy accused the Pistons of \u201Cvery selfish\u201D play and added Jackson was \u201Cnot good at all\u201D because he was \u201Cforcing everything.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022\u200B&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;New Open Floor podcast: Kobe,&amp;nbsp;Nets,&amp;nbsp;Kings&amp;nbsp;and more with Chris Mannix&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then, like now, Van Gundy seems to be projecting a greater level of accountability on Jackson. Combine the benching and the direct talk postgame, and the message is pretty clear: Detroit\u2019s success depends on Jackson, but he\u2019s not on such a high pedestal, that his ego and playing time take precedence over everything else. As the Pistons continue to build around franchise center Andre Drummond, they need Jackson to be The Guy who runs the show in the backcourt and he wants to be The Guy. However, that\u2019s a night-in, night-out occupation and slippage isn\u2019t part of the gig.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Jackson was upset by his treatment, he didn\u2019t verbalize it. During his benching, he sat with shoulders slumped at stretches, but he stood to cheer on Dinwiddie on multiple occasions. Afterward, he answered queries in a curt but professional manner, taking responsibility for his mistakes and declining all invitations for moral victories.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 &lt;strong&gt;MANNIX: Drummond deserves MVP votes&amp;nbsp;| Open Floor | Mailbag | Give &amp;amp; Go&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asked if perhaps he might take solace that the Pistons, who haven\u2019t finished with a winning record since \u201907\u201308, are still .500 despite the losing streak, Jackson shook his head.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CNah, I want to be 10\u20130,\u201D he said, before exiting the locker room.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perfection is obviously too much to ask from these Pistons, who lack the depth to truly scare anybody. But Van Gundy\u2019s off-season investment in Jackson was undertaken with the idea that enough was enough in Detroit, and it was time to a serious step forward after years of dysfunctional losing. With that context in mind, Jackson\u2019s public recognition that average won\u2019t suffice felt like something resembling progress, even on an otherwise \u201Cawful night.\u201D&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nba/2015/11/16/reggie-jackson-benched-stan-van-gundy-detroit-pistons-los-angeles-lakers>