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Defense is early camp emphasis for Pistons

Auburn Hills — Last season, the Pistons ranked in the middle of the pack defensively, allowing 99.5 points.

As they gear up for this season, one of coach Stan Van Gundy’s objectives is lowering that number and taking pressure off his big men having to stop shots at the rim.

There are some positive signs the teaching is sticking.

“We made some really good steps forward,” Van Gundy said Thursday. “We really worked on our defense and we made some progress in terms of our intensity and ball pressure.

“We’re still a long way from having the details we want and we’re not as sharp as we can be, but our intensity was way up.