Tonight the Detroit Pistons travel to Salt Lake City to face the struggling Utah Jazz. The Jazz are in a rut, having lost 6 of their last 7 games, while Detroit is coming off a wild comeback win over Sacramento.
Detroit Pistons vs. Utah Jazz: Game preview
- The Jazz come into the game with the league’s best offense, scoring 116.1 points per 100 possessions
- Utah sports the 12th-best defense in the NBA by allowing 108.8 points per 100 possessions
- The Jazz are without superstar Donovan Mitchell, as he is currently in the league’s concussion protocol.
- Both teams are on one night of rest, with the Jazz having lost to the Houston Rockets while the Pistons defeated the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday
- This is the 3rd game in 4 nights for the Detroit Pistons. They have not done well on little rest on the season, but have improved of late.
- Kelly Olynyk finally returned for Detroit against the Kings after missing almost 70 days with a knee injury and made an immediate impact, with 22 points.
- Bojan Bogdanovic is the Jazz’s leading scorer with Mitchell out
The Jazz are in a weird funk, their vaunted defense has slipped, and the offense hasn’t been quite as dominant lately. That said, they are still a excellent team, and it is most likely that they will stabilize at some point, just hopefully not tonight.
There is still hope for the Pistons that the Jazz will not have it figured out, given that Mitchell is still missing.
Bojan Bogdanovic should be the Pistons’ biggest concern defensively. With Jerami Grant still out, they do not have any good options for defending him, and he thrives off of smaller defenders, whom he can simply shoot over.
The Pistons energy level will be in question, playing their third game in four nights on the road, and having played a close game down to the wire last time out. They will have to dig deep to stick in this game for all 48 minutes.
According to WynnBET, the Pistons are 14 point underdogs tonight on the road, which makes sense, as the Pistons have either won lately or gotten blown out. The Pistons did beat the Jazz in their last meeting behind one of their best halves of the season.
The Jazz have been mentioned as a possible trade destination for Jerami Grant, which is another narrative to keep an eye on in this one.