Opponent Scouting: Milwaukee Bucks. (53-21)
Tonight at 7:00pm EST the Detroit Pistons will be hosting the Bucks at LCA in Detroit Michigan. The Pistons are on two days of rest after losing to the Raptors while the Bucks are on one day of rest and their 4th game in 6 days after getting shellacked by the Nuggets.
The Them:
The Bucks are really good. That is clear by the fact they currently sport the top record in the Eastern Conference despite battling some real injury issues at points this season. They got blown out by Denver last time out but they have been rolling for a while now. The Bucks are still traling a bit on the offensive end sporting the league’s 17th ranked offense, but they counter that with the 2nd best defense in the league where they are just a touch behind the Cavaliers. Its also worth noting that if you swap it to the last 15 games instead of the whole season their offense is ranked 8th in the league in that time.
I’ll be brief with the rest here. No one of particular note is listed on the injury report. The Bucks have many good players. This is likely to be a slaughter.
That’s all you’ve got? you skip the last couple of games and cut it that quick?
Yeah. I’m going to be light on describing opponents over the last few games here. If you’re still paying attention to this team you are a sicko who knows the opposing rosters at least somewhat.
Matchups to watch:
Pistons vs. Injuries: I will readily admit that part of the reason I skipped previews of the last couple of games is due to the huge amount of injuries for the Pistons making it hard to figure out what to even say. The Pistons are missing many players and it seems like they add onto it every night.
The bigs: Basically the only intrigue down the stretch of the season. So far the numbers for pretty much all the combinations of Wiseman/Bagley/Duren are awful but there have been some flashes of good stuff if you want to be optimistic. Seeing if any combo of those three can get any traction will be interesting.
Pistons vs. Not letting Giannis do whatever he wants: With the Pistons current big man situation their interior defense is a total disaster. Giannis will very likely score more or less at will. We should probably consider it a victory if all the Pistons bigs don’t end up in awful foul trouble.
Jalen Duren vs. Being light in dark places: I don’t want to overreact. But Duren has done some stuff recently that teenage bigs do not normally do, especially ones that were initially pegged into the Tyson Chandler mold. Passes, footwork, soft touch around the hoop. I’m not saying he’s about to become Hakeem or anything, but it might be time to dream bigger than Tyson Chandler for Duren.
Go for Wemby: No way around it. I hate tanking. I’ve hated this entire thing. There has been such a lack of joy in Pistons basketball. At this point though you just hope they lose.