Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been cleared to play vs Mavericks

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been cleared to play in the Detroit Pistons’ road game against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.

The Detroit Pistons have some good news to share the day after an ugly 97-79 home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. After Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was ruled out for Sunday’s game, he has received a clean bill of health and is good to go for the Pistons on the road against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.

According to Mike Brudenell of the Detroit Free Press, Caldwell-Pope participated in a two-hour practice on Monday and said he felt fine.

This is good on multiple fronts because not only is KCP one of the Pistons’ most valuable and irreplaceable players, but the team doesn’t have anybody reliable to start in his place. Darrun Hilliard was ineffective at shooting guard on Sunday in a spot start, and while Stanley Johnson put forth a solid performance, Stan Van Gundy isn’t likely to want to have to rely on him for minutes in the high 20’s just yet.

KCP had some choice words regarding the Pistons’ poor performance against the Sixers following practice:

Per Brudenell:

“It was tough to watch,” he said. “We played horrible. We played down to our competition. We didn’t play hard enough for the whole game.”
Did Sunday’s poor weather and small crowd have anything to do with the Pistons’ funk?

“Weather is going to keep fans away sometimes,” Caldwell-Pope said. “But it shouldn’t stop us from doing what we got to do on the court. We should have come out with a lot of energy at home.”

Expect KCP to be available for his usual complement of minutes on Wednesday at Dallas.