One of the abiding missions of the Pistons season is to expose their five rookies and host of young players to as many learning experiences as possible. The Detroit Pistons last game they played vs the Utah jazz was an interesting one to watch for Pistons fans for sure. The whole first half the Pistons didn’t look like they wanted to play but at half time you could sense their frustration start to take over. After Utah took a big lead into the halftime break, Blake Griffin ripped his jersey down the middle on the way to the visiting locker room. Following the first 24 minutes of game time, the Jazz held a 69-46 advantage. In the half, Griffin had 5 points on 2-9 field goals. He was 0-4 from three. Griffin added one rebound and an assist during his opening 16 minutes of action. The Pistons allowed four Jazz players to score in double figures in the 1^st half, led by Donovan Mitchell’s 15 points which is not good at all. By comparison, Detroit only had two players score 10 points or more. Mason Plumlee led the Pistons with 13 points in the first half. The Pistons were limited to 30.0 percent shooting, including only 21.4 percent from downtown. At 11:23 of the third quarter, Blake Griffin scored late in the shot clock on the first Pistons possession of the third quarter. Seven seconds later, Dwane Casey called a timeout. Yes, which is very odd. But seven seconds after a made Piston’s basket, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell scored a layup and that was very frustrating for the Pistons and head coach Dwane Casey. After that Dwane Casey time out and layup, the Pistons were able to really turn it around in the second half and if I wasn’t for a Delon Wright missed 3 they could have made it a one-point game. The young guys came in and really gave that energy and hustle that the Pistons were missing in the first half. Dwane Casey – and, really, everyone from general manager Troy Weaver on down in the organizational flow chart – is measuring the Pistons less by wins and losses and more by growth and responses to adversity. So, for the Pistons to go from 28 down to having a chance with a wide-open Delon Wright 3-pointer to pull within a point with 93 seconds to go was not insignificant, not just another loss. “Compete – that’s all we have to hang our hat on. Compete, fight, scratch,” Casey said after the 117-105 loss, Utah getting consecutive triples from Bojan Bogdanovic after Wright’s miss to inflate the final margin. “Compete together, stay together, don’t give in to adversity. Don’t let go of the rope. I just felt they were and I let the guys know. I thought they responded. Put ourselves in position. Delon had a wide-open three.” Jerami Grant scored 20 of his 27 in the second half. Mason Plumlee battled his way to 17 points and 14 rebounds. Josh Jackson came off the bench at full throttle, finishing with 22 points and eight assists and earned all of his 30 minutes and the right to finish the game on a night Casey’s second unit battled hard.