The three through six seeds in the Eastern Conference are coming down to the wire and the Detroit Pistons are in the thick of it.
They missed a chance to increase their lead over the Bucks to 2.5 games when three of their players were booted in last night’s loss to Minnesota after Naz Reid overreacted and Donte DiVincenzo jumped in to help him.
I do think the Pistons have to be better at avoiding getting dragged into that stuff, but also hope the league is seeing the same replay we all saw when making their decisions about possible suspensions.
It was Naz Reid’s overreaction that started the whole thing and DiVincenzo escalated it, so I am hoping the Pistons can avoid costly suspensions for backing their 19-year-old teammate.
It won’t be the only thing hanging over them as the season winds down, as the Pistons will have plenty to overcome in the battle for playoff seeding.
Detroit Pistons’ schedule
The Pistons are essentially in a battle with three other teams, the Bucks, Pacers and Knicks, who are all within striking distance.
Of the four teams, the Pistons have the most difficult remaining strength of schedule, the 4th-most difficult in the NBA.
Just behind them are the Knicks, with the 5th-most difficult and then you have to look way down the list to find the Pacers (20th) and Bucks (25th).
Games aren’t played on paper, and the Pistons have shown of late that no team can be counted out, even if they are missing their best player.
But the Pistons have to play better teams and most of them will have something at stake in the games, as they don’t have any outright tankers left on their schedule and both the Pacers and Bucks do.
Injuries at the worst possible time
Every team is beat up at this point in the season, so it’s not like the Pistons are the only ones with injuries.
The Bucks recently lost Damian Lillard for the rest of the season, so they are not trying to hear anyone moaning about injuries.
But the Pistons have now been without Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris for consecutive games. Dennis Schroder is banged up, probably more so after playing most of the game last night and the Pistons were already missing Jaden Ivey.
After mostly avoiding injuries this season, the Pistons have gotten hit by the bug at the wrong time, and the longer Cade Cunningham is out, the more worrying that will be.
This could be compounded if any suspensions are handed out for last night’s ruckus.
The good news is that the Pistons have responded to adversity all season and will embrace the challenge no matter who is on the floor. There’s also not much difference between the six and three seed, so the Pistons can focus on getting healthy and worry about who they play later.
This isn’t going to be easy, as Detroit has a tough stretch left and may be doing it without their full roster.