3 things to play for in meaningless Pistons vs. Pacers game

The Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers will play a game tonight with nothing at stake in the standings.

Both teams have been eliminated from postseason play (the Pistons pretty much the second Cade Cunningham went out with injury) and Detroit has locked up the worst record in the league.

It’s been an ugly season for Detroit, with few positives to build on as they head into a pivotal offseason that could see some big changes to the roster and coaching staff.

As meaningless as this game is, they are still going to roll a basketball onto the court tonight at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and there are still some things for the Detroit Pistons to play for even though most of us are counting down the minutes until this season is over.

Pistons vs. Pistons: 3 things to play for

Pride

There hasn’t been much of this hovering around the Detroit Pistons this season, as they have only won 16 games are are currently mired in a lengthy losing streak.

A couple of garbage wins at the end of the season isn’t going to miraculously turn this team around by any means, but do they really want to head into the offseason on a 13-game losing streak? That is what they are facing if they don’t get a win in one of these last two games.

Detroit has lost 22 of their last 23 games and if they don’t win another, will have tied the worst record in franchise history. No player wants their name on that record, so there is a little pride at stake tonight.

They could also tie the season series with the Pacers, which again, is meaningless, but the Pacers are one of the teams they need to leapfrog in the Eastern Conference if they want to be in the mix next season, and getting another win over them with a massively depleted roster would be a slight injection of confidence.

I was going to add that Killian Hayes will get another shot at Tyrese Haliburton, but Haliburton has been ruled out for tonight’s game, probably best for Pistons’ fans who don’t need the reminder.

The Rookies

Both Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren are battling for spots on the All-Rookie team and can help their cases in these last two games even if they don’t mean anything in the standings.

Jaden Ivey has been on a tear in his last five games, averaging 21.8 points, 8.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from 3-point range on a whopping 7.2 attempts per game.

His improvement has been noticeable on both ends, especially his 3-point shooting, and the idea of pairing him with Cade Cunningham is even more appealing now.

Jalen Duren has also been great in his last five games, averaging 13.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and trying to prove he’s the starter and center of the future, regardless of what happens with James Wiseman.

Duren is on the fringes of making the All-Rookie team and two more games to boost his stats will help. The Pacers won’t feature a real center tonight, so we could see the rookie go off for a 20-rebound game, which would be fun.

The 2022-23 season has both flown by and lingered like a bad smell in a car, but there are still two games to go and the Detroit Pistons would love to end their season on a high note.