The Detroit Pistons will take on the Orlando Magic tonight with plenty on the line.
The Pistons are a full game ahead of the Magic in the standings, so have a chance to put another game between them.
It would also give the Pistons a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head matches this season, which is used as the first tiebreaker for seeding in the playoffs/play-in.
The Magic have lost five straight to drop them to .500 and the 7th seed as they try to battle through the injury bug that seems to have affected most of their roster at some point this season.
Orlando will be desperate for a win tonight as they try to get back on track and to the winning ways that carried them through the first quarter of the season.
You can throw the last meeting between these two teams out the window, as the Magic were missing their two best players, so Detroit had better be ready tonight, as Orlando is going to come out swinging.
Pistons injuries vs. Magic
The Pistons should soon have an update on Jaden Ivey, who went out at the beginning of the month with a broken leg and will be out for the foreseeable future.
The Magic will be shorthanded again tonight as Gary Harris and Mo Wagner are both ruled out and Jalen Suggs, Boga Bitadze and Cole Anthony are all deemed questionable.
I expect the Magic to come out with intensity tonight and the Pistons will have to match it, weather their runs and continue to clamp down on defense, which has been the theme of the month.
Pistons’ offensive and defensive rating without Jaden Ivey
There have been games when Jaden Ivey’s absence was felt for the Pistons, especially on the offensive end, but they’ve kept rolling in January without him.
The Pistons have a 113.2 offensive rating in the month of January, slightly up from their overall season number of 111.8.
It hasn’t all just been Cade Cunningham, as the veterans have really stepped up in Ivey’s absence, particularly Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. who are taking turns having big games.
Detroit could certainly use another scorer to take some of the load off Cunningham, but they’ve actually improved offensively with Ivey out.
Same on the defensive side of the ball, where the Pistons have posted a 108 defensive rating this month, down from 112.5 on the season and third in the NBA in that span.
An increase in Ausar Thompson minutes helps, as does a little more Ron Holland II, and even though these two aren’t the scorers Ivey is, their defense helps the Pistons get out on the break where they are scoring the 3rd-most fast break points in the league to make up for it.
Good defense leads to easy offense.
This isn’t a knock on Ivey, more to give props to the guys who have stepped up when their second-leading scorer went down.
How to watch Pistons vs. Magic
The 7:00 PM ET tip-off will be shown on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit Extra or you can listen on 950 AM.
For streaming options, click here.
The Pistons are looking for their third straight win and to gain ground on the 5th-seeded Pacers, who are in action in Paris tonight against the Spurs.