Going into Friday’s games, the Pistons were one of six teams to have played 12 games. Their cumulative record: 24-48. Only the Los Angeles Clippers, at 7-5, had a winning record. So many games so early in the season after a training camp and preseason shortened to three weeks in recent years appears to handicap teams. “That’s why next week is going to be huge,” Casey said. “We’ve got three or four days we can practice. Before, there was one day in between. It sounds like excuses, like the other night (before their Tuesday game at Miami), getting in at 6 in the morning. Sounds like an excuse. But it’s going to take a while for our guys to jell together, work together, learn each other. With Blake (Griffin) and Derrick (Rose) back, for them to learn each other. It’s going to be a marathon. But it didn’t help with the few days off that we had between games.”
