Pistons cruising into matchup vs. Hawks

The Pistons have continued their winning ways down the stretch, defeating the Hornets last night for their fifth win in a row. With the victory, the Pistons are now tied with the Pacers, who are seventh in the East, but Indiana remains on top because it holds a 3-1 season series advantage over Detroit. The journey to the playoffs continues tonight against the Atlanta Hawks.

But with the Pistons on a hot streak, leap frogging the Pacers is entirely possible with nine games left. Though this schedule includes facing the East-leading Cavaliers, Thunder, and the Wizards — who dominated the Pistons by 43 last time the two teams faced off — among others, Detroit has shown that it is capable of beating even the best teams in the league. And with this extra motivation to finish off the season strong to lock a playoff spot, the Pistons face the third place in the East Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.

The Hawks are coming off of an 11 point win over the Bucks, and are on a hot streak of their own, winning seven of their last eight games. When the Hawks visited the Palace on Mar. 16, Atlanta pulled out a four point victory behind stellar nights from Al Horford and Jeff Teague, who scored 21 and 22 points, respectively. Along with the close final score, the teams each pulled down 56 rebounds and the Pistons committed only one more turnover. Detroit made a late charge in the waning seconds, but the effort was too late.

This time out, the Pistons will hope Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will build off of his 21 point night on Friday, as he was the Pistons leading scorer against the Hawks just under two weeks ago as well. Marcus Morris’ 3-point shooting could also be a factor as he has been in a rhythm with his shot from behind the arc as of late. The bench production a la Aron Baynes will be integral in a win, as the veteran center went for 16 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes against the Hornets.

The matchup against the Hawks will not be an easy one, and defending Teague will be imperative for the Pistons to pull out a win. Reggie Jackson and Caldwell-Pope will have to stop the guard from scoring and distributing before the offense gets on a roll to avoid a setback like the game against Washington two weeks ago. But since that game, Detroit has went 5-1. That one loss was against the Hawks the game after the embarrassing loss in D.C.

The Pistons are getting another shot to avenge that loss against Atlanta. With the home crowd behind them, craving a playoff berth, the Pistons have all of the momentum to push their win streak to half a dozen.

Starting lineups

Detroit Pistons

Reggie Jackson

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Marcus Morris

Tobias Harris

Andre Drummond

Atlanta Hawks

Jeff Teague

Kyle Korver

Kent Bazemore

Paul Millsap

Al Horford