Opponent Scouting: Houston Rockets (9-20)
Saturday at 12:00 noon EST the Detroit Pistons will be hosting the Houston Rockets. The Pistons are on one day of rest after losing to the Pacers, while the Rockets are coming off a loss against the Knicks.
The Them:
The Rockets are bad, but they are a normal kind of bad, not historically bad like the Pistons. They come in with the 27th ranked offense and 26th ranked defense. That may sound bad, because it is, but their 27th ranked net rating is nearly 3 points per 100 possessions better than 28th ranked Thunder. So yeah, they are bad, but they have been a clear step above the NBA’s basement of OKC, Detroit, and Orlando.
The Rockets are missing some guys, as of this writing their injury report includes: Jalen Green, Eric Gordon, Danuel House, Kevin Porter, and Christian Wood. That list is also known as: basically all the guys Pistons fans might be interested in seeing.
Just in case any of them suddenly play: Jalen Green jumps high, Eric Gordon is chubby but can shoot, Danuel House is a basketball player, Kevin Porter is big athletic and skilled, Christian Wood is good at basketball. Also Eric Gordon did play in their last game so maybe he is in today I don’t know.
After those guys this roster stretches the brain even of a hoops junkie like myself. Daniel Thiess, formerly of the Celtics is here being a solid all-around big that isn’t good enough at anything to really stand out. Jae’Sean Tate isn’t shooting that well from deep but is still productive. Garrison Morris can shoot, Kenyon Martin is shorter than his dad but is a physical wing. D.J. Augustine is here. David Nwaba plays hard. Alperen Sengun is a rookie from Turkey that some people are real high on.
If the Rockets had all their guys this would be more interesting as that version won some games, the current version of the team is probably even worse than the Pistons.
Matchups to watch:
Saddiq Bey vs. Building: At this point Bey is much maligned. I was maligning Bey even last season and I still think its maybe gotten a bit far now, he’s coming off a huge game, lets see him build on it.
Pistons vs winning: Yeah. Gotta break the streak tonight.
Offense vs. Missing Grant: Been a bit disjointed which isn’t a shock. Pistons need to find some consistency from other places, maybe Bey can keep stringing them together, maybe someone else.
Killian Hayes vs. Getting involved: Last time out was a bad flashback to last season when he didn’t look like he belonged on an NBA court. Needs to jump back in and get back on track to get the bad taste out of his mouth.
Opportunities for me to look stupid:
The Pistons win.
please