Detroit Pistons look to keep faint playoff hopes alive against Miami Heat
It’s do or die for the Detroit Pistons as they head into battle the Miami Heat who currently occupy the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Detroit Pistons will try to shake off a disappointing 115-106 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic and keep their dream of a return to the post-season alive.
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It was a perfect opportunity to make up ground on the Miami Heat, who are currently 32-30 with a hold on the final spot in the playoffs.
The Pistons, who fell to 29-33 would have had a chance to put some serious pressure on the Heat if they could pull off back-to-back wins on this Florida road trip, but instead will now be faced with a season-defining matchup.
An incredibly worrying sign is that the Pistons are likely to be exhausted while the Heat are rested up.
Not only will the Heat have a day’s worth of rest and the Pistons will be playing the second night of a back-to-back, but they’re also coming off an extra five minutes of game time.
Reggie Bullock (40 minutes) and Andre Drummond (38 minutes) all played well over the amount of game time they’d usually see, while the rest of the starters all logged more than 30 minutes each.
The reserves felt the pinch too with Stanley Johnson, Dwight Buycks and Anthony Tolliver all playing 20 minutes off the bench too.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom when looking at this matchup.
The Heat are currently in the middle of a slump and has won just three of their last 10 games.
One of those wins relied heavily on a bit of Dwyane Wade vintage magic down the stretch.
The Pistons have also played the Heat quite well this season.
They have won two out of three matchups in 2017-18, with their one loss still being a competitive game.
Drummond, who has historically performed out of his skin when playing the Heat has also continued that trend this season.
He’s averaging 15.5 points, 18.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.5 blocks against Miami, which is an encouraging trend considering Hassan Whiteside is in the middle of a slump.
Whiteside is currently being made to wear a knee brace to combat a pestering knee issue.
Since February he’s been averaging 12.9 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and playing just 26.3 minutes per game.
If the Pistons are going to be able to shake off a bad loss and bounce back against the Heat they need Drummond to be at his absolute best and playing with high energy.
If he’s off his game and his energy is even slightly effected by the back-to-back then the Pistons odds of winning, and their odds of fighting for a spot in the playoffs, are going to be drastically lowered.
Another interesting narrative to watch will be whether Stan Van Gundy sticks with benching Luke Kennard.
#Pistons SVG on making up ground in playoff chase: "I don’t care about that. I’ve said that -- you guys keep asking me.
— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) March 3, 2018
"What matters is that we play well and win games. We have no control over the rest of it. I don’t give a s#^& about that."
After the loss to the Magic Van Gundy spoke about not worrying about chasing the playoffs.
These comments were especially baffling considering he’d only just committed Kennard to the very end of the bench in favour of Langston Galloway.
If Van Gundy truly believes the race for playoffs is now out of their hands it would make sense that he would give game-time to his first-round, elite shooting rookie in the remaining games left.
It looks unlikely that Kennard will see the floor against the Heat, but it’s something to keep an eye out for and Van Gundy has been known to make rotation decisions out of nowhere this season.