The Detroit Pistons close out road trip in Milwaukee

The Detroit Pistons, losers of three straight, close out a four-game road trip with the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.

The Detroit Pistons (14-9) visit the Milwaukee Bucks (12-10) on Wednesday night. The Pistons will be looking to end a three-game losing streak that started at the onset of their current four-game road trip that ends tonight.

Prior to the slide, Detroit had won nine of their previous 12 games, an impressive stretch that included wins at Minnesota, at Oklahoma City, and at Boston. Considering tonight’s game caps a stretch of nine road games in the span of 22 days (with only two home games mixed in), the Pistons have handled this challenging part of their schedule just fine.

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Still, a win tonight would end the road trip on a much more positive note.

Milwaukee has had an up and down season to this point. They lost four straight between Halloween and November 7, won four straight from November 10 to November 15, and have now won three of their previous four games. However, the Bucks have been a rock-solid 8-4 since acquiring and inserting Eric Bledsoe into their starting five, a stretch that contains wins over San Antonio, Portland, and Detroit.

The Pistons have been in a shooting slump during their three-game skid. On the season, they’re making 11.0 three pointers per game at a 37.8 percent clip. During the losing streak, those numbers have fallen to 8.6 threes made on 29.5 percent shooting. Milwaukee is just the team to break that slump against – opponents are shooting a league-high 40.2 percent from beyond the long line against the aggressive and trap-happy Bucks defense.

After coming off the bench for the first time this season on Monday, expect Stanley Johnson to re-enter the starting lineup for Detroit tonight. Stan Van Gundy likely only started Anthony Tolliver against San Antonio to better match up with the Spurs’ taller frontcourt, but Johnson will be needed to defend Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.9 points per game on 54.8 percent shooting from the field on the season. In two games against Detroit, his numbers are down to 25.0 points on 48.8 percent shooting. Johnson has played a big part in that.

This will be the third meeting between Detroit and Milwaukee on the season. The Pistons took game one in Detroit by nine points back on November 3, while the Bucks put on a dominating defensive performance at home to win 99-95 on November 15.

On the injury front, Jon Leuer is out for Pistons, while the Bucks will be without Matthew Dellavedova, Jason Terry, Mirza Teletovic, and Jabari Parker.

Next: Jon Leuer Out 2-4 More Weeks

Detroit and Milwaukee tip off from the BMO Harris Bradley Center at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight. Vegas has the Bucks as around three-point favorites.

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