The Detroit Pistons will welcome the Miami Heat to Little Caesar’s Arena tonight for the second to last home game of the season.
It’s the first game of a back-to-back (because if you can throw in a back-to-back in game 78, why not?) and although the Pistons are long out of the play-in hunt, these games could have a big effect on both the lottery odds and the NBA standings.
The Pistons only have four games left in a season that has provided more questions than answers, around everything from who will coach them next season, to just how much roster churn we are going to see when it mercifully ends.
We could see as many as nine players gone from the roster that started this season, and Troy Weaver already got a head start when he traded Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox for James Wiseman.
But there are still games to play, and surprisingly, the Detroit Pistons could end up playing spoiler to one of the possible playoff teams, or just ensure that they end up with the league’s worst record.
Detroit Pistons lottery odds and nba standings vs. Miami Heat
The Detroit Pistons have a 2.5 game gap between them and the Rockets for the worst record in the league. Detroit only has four games left and Houston has three, so if the Rockets were to beat the Nuggets tonight and the Pistons lose to the Heat, the worst record will be sealed. Yay?
Hopefully they’ll just get it over with so we can stop talking about tanking. If both teams lose tonight, a tie is still on the table, but Detroit would have to win another game, which seems like a long shot at this point.
The Miami Heat are currently in the 7th seed, two games behind the Nets for the 6th seed and two games ahead of the Hawks and Raptors for the 8th. Miami would love to get into that 6th seed and avoid the play-in, so is hoping to steamroll Detroit tonight and then that the Pistons find a way to beat the Nets tomorrow, good luck with that.
An unlikely win for Detroit would make things very interesting in the race for the play-in tournament and it could come down to the final game, which is exactly what the NBA wanted when it expanded the playoffs to include 10 teams.
Some fans may not like it, but it has worked, as there are far fewer teams tanking this season, and the races are still at stake going into the final week of games.
Detroit has split the season series with the Heat 1-1 so far, with the Pistons winning way back in December and the Heat notching an easy win recently at the end of March.