The Detroit Pistons handily defeated the Washington Wizards on Tuesday and will have a chance to do it again tonight.
With the Bucks playing the Lakers, a win would give the Pistons a chance to leapfrog the Bucks in the standings and claim sold possession of the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons have to get a win and then hope the Lakers can do the same.
With the Western Conference-leading OKC Thunder coming into town on Saturday, this has the feel of a trap game, even though the Wizards barely looked like an NBA team in the last one.
The Pistons can’t be watching scoreboards or worrying about the Thunder, though it must be tempting to do both.
It will also be tempting to get into altercations with the Wizards after the last game featured some jawing and light pushing and shoving, but the Pistons can’t get into any of that either.
They can’t afford any technical fouls (especially for Isaiah Stewart) or stupid suspensions when they are playing a team they should easily trounce.
Avoid the lure, avoid the trap, take care of your business and move onto the next one, it’s that simple.
Pistons injuries vs. Wizards
The Pistons are still missing Jaden Ivey, whose injury status has not been updated since February 6th, so we should be getting some new information soon, as he was meant to be re-evaluated in four weeks.
There is a slight possibility Ivey could return this season depending on how the Pistons fare, but I wouldn’t expect or count on it.
The Wizards will be missing our old friend Saddiq Bey, as well as Malcolm Brogdon and Bilal Coulibaly, who have all been ruled out.
Colby Jones is listed as questionable for the Wizards, who hold the league’s worst record.
How to watch Pistons vs. Wizards
The game tips off at 7:00 PM ET in Little Caesar’s Arena, which was fairly subdued on Tuesday until some pushing, shoving and a couple of Ausar Thompson dunks piqued their interest.
You can watch on FanDuel Sport Network Detroit, stream from one of many options or listen on 97.1 FM The Ticket.
After this game vs. the Wizards, things will start to get tough for Detroit, as they have a 15-game stretch to end the season that includes 12 games against teams that are at least in the play-in.
Two of them are against Trajan Langdon’s former team the New Orleans Pelicans, who have been playing better since Zion Williamson returned, so there won’t be anything easy about the end of this season in Detroit.
And not to look too far ahead, but those last two games against Milwaukee are setting up to be huge, as they could decide homecourt advantage and be the prelude to a playoff series.