Pistons' Andre Drummond understands 4th-quarter benching

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Stan Van Gundy joined Detroit Pistons fans Tuesday in their second-guessing.

After he decided to sit center Andre Drummond for the entire fourth quarter of Monday's loss at the Atlanta Hawks — following a dominating 13 points and 18 rebounds through three quarters — the Pistons' coach said he wrestled with the decision almost immediately after the game.

The issue was Drummond's free throw shooting — he was 2-for-10 in the third quarter alone. The empty possessions and the Hawks' depth at center, which allowed for multiple hacks on Drummond when he got near the basket, factored into Van Gundy's thinking.

It was obvious today that Drummond was not exactly thrilled about the move. But at least he could understand the reasoning.

"Obviously, you want to be out there to help your team, but Coach is going to feel like it's the best fit, and then you got to understand that he feels a certain way about the right guys that fit at that moment," Drummond said at the practice facility.

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The stakes are high now for the Pistons (16-26), who have stormed back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture with an 11-3 stretch. And Drummond had shot nearly 60% from the line in the previous nine games.

Considering he was a 29% shooter during his only season at UConn, his current 42.5% shows he's working at it. And he understands there will be setbacks like Monday.

"I haven't been shooting as bad as I used to," Drummond said. "I'd been having decent foul-shooting nights. Yesterday was worst I'd shot in a long time. Instead of letting it snowball and get worse, he just took me out the game to try to find a guy to help us get back in the game."

Vince Ellis writes for the Detroit Free Press and is a member of USA TODAY Sports' NBA power rankings panel.