Keys to the game: Detroit Pistons versus New York Knicks

This is the last game for the Pistons. Playing at the Madison Square Garden against the league’s worst, the Pistons should be able to get a win. But that was somewhat the case for last game, and only winning by a nail biter. Can the Pistons clinch a playoff spot with a win tonight?

Last night the Detroit Pistons faced off against the G-League lineup that Memphis gave them. The Pistons had a very weak first half but the win came from shutting the Grizzlies down to only 36 points in the final two quarters.

Let’s talk about the next game now.

The Pistons are squaring off against the New York Knicks. They’ve won two straight against some bad teams, but they still hold for the league’s worst record.

It’s hard to know who will be playing for the Knicks, but let’s assume that Emmanuel Mudiay and DeAndre Jordan will be out for tonight’s game.

The Pistons need to win this game, the team has to treat this like a playoff game, and the Knicks will likely be posting a bad lineup for the game. Allot of the result of tonight’s game for Detroit will come from if Blake Griffin will play and if so how much playing time will he get?

The Pistons should hope that they get the seventh seed in the playoffs, that would have them facing off against the Toronto Raptors. The Pistons match up the best against the Raptors over any other team that they would face. The only issue is, there is only one scenario where they will get it. If Brooklyn wins and Orlando loses.

Let’s look at three keys on how the Pistons can clinch a playoff victory.

Keys to the game

1. Go into the game full throttle. If the Pistons come out with a lead early on, they can start to rely on their bench to play the rest of the game for them. This will help because the playoffs are only a few days away and any rest is good, but to have this rest they have to come into the game clicking on all cylinders.
2. Keep the rotation moving. With the game that Wayne Ellington had last night, there was no reason for him to play 38 minutes. Other shooters like Luke Kennard, and Langston Galloway both need to step up tonight to keep our rotation flow. This leads to the idea that the Pistons cannot afford to have another poor shooting night, so our shooters are going to need to help the ball movement run its course and they find their open shot.
3. The Knicks would love to knock a team out of playoff contention. Here’s why, the Knicks have nothing to lose, they have the worst record, their players who are playing are playing over 35 minutes in each game and they just want to hoop at this point. This is the last game, and it’s at home, wouldn’t it be nice to just knock a playoff lurking team off?  Don’t expect the Knicks to forfeit this game, they are not. Mitchell Robinson will still be a dominant force in the paint, and Dennis Smith Jr. will be looking for any scoring opportunity possible. The Knicks played hard last night, came out with over 60 rebounds, the Pistons have to attack the glass and find an open body to box out.

No excuse to lose this game tonight, if they fail this is the last you will be seeing the Pistons this season.

Tipoff is at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time.