The Detroit Pistons head to Miami to take on the Heat tonight after dismantling the New Orleans Pelicans by 46 points in their last outing.
Detroit now finds themselves just a half game behind the Bucks for the 5th seed, as Milwaukee has been overtaken by the Pacers who now sit in 4th, a full game ahead of the Pistons.
Every game is now crucial for possible playoff seeding even though the Pistons have clinched a spot in the postseason already. Their magic number to clinch a guaranteed playoff spot now sits at eight.
The Miami Heat have been going in the other direction, losing eight in a row, the longest losing streak in the Erik Spoelstra era. Miami has been in a freefall since the Jimmy Butler trade, just 4-15 since the trade deadline to fall to the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference.
But you can throw all that out when these two teams play. The Pistons are 2-1 against the Heat this season, but there were only three points separating the two teams in Detroit’s two wins.
Both teams have protected picks in the 2025 Draft, but unlike Miami, Detroit is not trying to keep theirs, as it is protected 1-13 and they’ll be happy to send it to Minnesota if it means the team is in the playoffs and will then be in control of all of their future picks for the first time in five years.
The Heat would currently have both the 9th and 22nd picks in the 1st round, as the pick they owe OKC (does anyone not owe OKC a pick?) is protected 1-14, so they have every motivation to tank the rest of this season and try to use those two picks to reload in the summer, as their 2026 pick would then be guaranteed to go to OKC.
There are plenty of subplots to this game, but most important is that Detroit needs a win to keep pace with Indiana in the standings.
Pistons injuries vs. Heat
Detroit is still only missing Jaden Ivey, which has been one of the biggest factors this season that no one talks about. After years of having arm’s length injury reports, the Pistons have been able to stay healthy.
Part of that is that Trajan Langdon went out and got guys with stellar health records, but JB Bickerstaff has also been very good about allocating minutes and not driving his guys into the ground.
We recently complained that Isaiah Stewart would be ineligible for the All-Defensive team because of this, but considering Stew has played 63 games already this season after only playing 96 total in the last two years combined, we can’t complain too much, as 20 minutes of Stewart per night is better than none.
The Heat will be missing Dru Smith and Nikola Jovic with Andrew Wiggins and Alec Burks listed as questionable.
How to watch Pistons vs. Heat
This one was flexed to ESPN recently, so congrats, we are getting a nationally televised game! It will also be on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit.
You can listen on 97.1 FM The Ticket or use one of the many streaming options.