Rough schedule ahead could sting in long run for The Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons have a brutal schedule ahead of them. Will their remaining stretch in the schedule sting them in the long run?

The Detroit Pistons sit at the 6th spot in the eastern conference. They are a half game ahead of The Brooklyn Nets and 2.5 games ahead of The Miami Heat.

The Pistons lost the tiebreaker against the Nets after a disappointing blowout game earlier this month. Luckily for them, they will likely hold the tiebreaker against the Heat because of their better conference record.

Brooklyn’s schedule is the hardest of the three between themselves, Pistons, and Heat. Seven of their last 8 remaining games of the season are teams over .500. Their only game against a team under .500 is the Miami Heat. The 7 other games are against some of the top talents in the league.

The Heat have a fairly easy schedule to end March. Their next four opponents are against teams under .500. But their schedule becomes brutal to end the season. Four of their last six games are on the road. And five of the six are against teams over .500.

For the Pistons, their schedule is brutal to end March. They have a three game road trip out west to face Portland on Saturday. Then travel to Oakland to take on the Warriors on a second game of a back to back. And last travel to Denver to take on the much improved Nuggets on Tuesday.

Three games in four nights is a brutal stretch. And to end the month they have Orlando; who are fighting to make the playoffs, and Portland again. After that their last three of six games are teams over .500; two of them being against Indiana and one against Oklahoma City.

Best/Worst case scenario?

Obviously the Detroit Pistons haven’t clinched a playoff position yet. They could still fall out with a late surging Orlando playoff push. The Pistons would have to “wet the bed” and have a royal catastrophe to let this happen. They are almost a sure lock for the playoffs. But this is the worst case scenario.

Second worst case scenario is Miami and Brooklyn surging upwards while the Pistons fall to the 8th seed. The Pistons have not played well against the Milwaukee Bucks. They were swept in the seasons series. And they also lost by an average of 14.7 PPG in those 4 meetings. Something tells me the Pistons would get swept by the Bucks again.

Second best case scenario situation would be sitting at the 6th seed to end the season. It sounds crazy. The Pistons being at the highest seed that could realistically get to is the second best scenario? The Philadelphia 76ers sit at the three seed and seemed to have it locked down. There isn’t much else to say here. Philly’s super team lineup with the addition of Tobias Harris would be tough to beat. The Pistons lost the season series against Philly. Their only win came early in the season when Blake Griffin scored a career high 50 points.

The best case scenario is the Pistons finding themselves at 7 facing off against the Toronto Raptors. The Pistons swept Toronto this season. All games being competitive and coming down to the wire. But surely the Pistons “own real estate” in Toronto’s head.” But seriously, the Pistons match up extremely well against Toronto. Having Coach Dwane Casey could put more pressure on the Raptors with their history together.

Other than the worst case scenario, the Pistons just about look to have a playoff spot locked. You can’t be too disappointed with whichever seed they end up grabbing.