The Detroit Pistons are in Indianapolis to take on the Pacers tonight. This is a match-up that simply doesn’t favor the Pistons.
Tonight, the Detroit Pistons are on the road against a divisional opponent with a lot of history.
The Indiana Pacers are another daunting task in this brutal stretch of games in December. They’re currently 23-12 on the season and just 2.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors for the first seed in the eastern conference.
Last season, the Pistons were able to take three out of the regular season games between these two teams. That was all without Blake Griffin.
Last December was the last time these two teams met.
Many forget they came close to knocking off LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
This team has only improved since then. They get it done in a number of ways.
Victor Oladipo is their catalyst. He’s averaging 20 points a game to go along with six rebounds and five assists. Bojan Bogdanovic is shooting over 46 percent from long range and is averaging 16 points a game for the Pacers.
The Pacers are an extremely efficient team on both ends of the floor. As a team, they shoot 47 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point range.
Both of those are good enough for fifth in the entire league.
On the defensive end, they only allow 101 points per game. That’s first in the NBA.
How are they able to do this? The Pacers force turnovers. They average over nine steals per game as a team which is second behind the Oklahoma City Thunder.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a great match-up for a Detroit Pistons team that hasn’t done a good job at hanging on to the basketball as of late.
They average over 15 turnovers a game. In their last three games, they’ve averaged 18 a game. That’s just not going to get it done.
The Pistons are at the .500 mark on the season and currently sit in sixth place in the east. Only one game separates them from the ninth seed in the east so every game matters right now.
They’ll rely heavily on Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond to spark the offense.
Hopefully they can continue to get good minutes out of Langston Galloway coming off the bench. He scored 22 points in their win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.
Injury report
The Detroit Pistons didn’t exactly receive good new yesterday. Ish Smith was re-evaluated for his groin injury and he will be out for another 2-3 weeks before returning to the lineup.
That’s a player the Pistons desperately need to get back healthy.
On the other hand, Glenn Robinson III could face his former team tonight for the first time in a Pistons uniform. He’s questionable for tonight’s game with an ankle injury.
Henry Ellenson (ankle) is day-to-day as well.
The Pacers have a couple of guys on their injury report as well.
Tyreke Evans (knee) and Kyle O’Quinn (illness) are both questionable for tonight’s game. Other than that, this is a healthy team that looks to keep rolling.
Game day Information:
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 FM (Pistons radio affiliates)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN)