There isn’t a whole lot you can complain about the Pistons start to the season. They sit at an East-best 4-1 and got through the brutal start to their schedule with a 3-1 record. This is all despite missing Jalen Duren for half of the games and key rotation players like Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Joe for a couple.
The Brooklyn Nets are 0-4, but they have been sneakily competitive this season with their only blowout loss being a 27-point loss to the Indiana Pacers. They are coming off a buzzer beating loss to the Boston Celtics in overtime on Tuesday.
It is tough to make definitive judgments on a team early in the season, but I feel like Brooklyn could be one of those teams that doesn’t win a lot of games, but makes it tough on you every time you face them.
The Pistons have a good shot at winning their group in the NBA Cup, but I definitely wouldn’t call this game an “easy” win.
Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY
When: Friday, October 30 at 7:30 pm EST
Watch: TV20 Detroit or DAZN (streaming)
Odds: Pistons (-7.5)
An underrated factor to this game is that the Brooklyn Nets were able to fly home from Boston after their overtime heartbreaker on Tuesday and have been home since then while the Pistons had to fly from New York, back to Detroit for a home game against Charlotte, and then back to New York for this game. They at least have a day of rest for this game, which should help, but having to travel that much in a 3-day span is not great.
This is very much could be a trap game given the travel-related factors and the fact that the Nets have been a pretty feisty team this season despite their 0-4 record. The Nets have a pretty good mix of developing young players and veterans that make things easier for them, so I feel like they will be a tough out every night, even if their record is one of the worst in the league.
The two veterans that are the big threats are Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. Both have kind of been sent to rot in Brooklyn by their former teams, but Porter put together an impressive season last year and continues to be one of the biggest off-ball shooting threats in the league. Randle’s game is what it is at this point, but he has the ability to take on a pretty heavy offensive burden and allow the younger guys to focus on taking the easy shots.
One of the young players we will miss out on seeing is last year’s highest of their many first round picks, Egor Demin, who suffered a leg injury in the overtime loss to the Celtics. The Nets still have other improving young players like 1st round pick Mikel Brown Jr. and Nolan Traore, who has shown some flashes in his 2nd season.
I have faith that the Pistons will be able to slow down the Brooklyn Nets on the defensive end, as they have only given up 98 points per game over the last three games. But, in those three games they have only averaged 100 points per game. Without their 2nd offensive threat in Jalen Duren as well as a drop off in shooting from Duncan Robinson and no Isaiah Joe, the free flowing offense that hit a lot of threes to start out the season is now temporarily missing in action (hopefully).
Luckily for the Pistons, there is a chance that Isaiah Joe returns tonight and their schedule over the next couple weeks while Jalen Duren is out is not as difficult as the gauntlet they started the season out with.
But, as long as the Pistons have Cade Cunningham, they have a chance in any game. Cade finally broke out of his quiet start to the season to the tune of 30 points against Charlotte on Wednesday. He hit multiple clutch shots along with Daniss Jenkins to seal the game. With how much the Pistons have struggled to create offense without Jalen Duren, I expect the Jenkins-Cade backcourt to get a few more looks since both players can handle the ball and create a bit for others.
That’s not to say that we haven’t gotten that look before, as JB Bickerstaff has employed it a few times this season, but Jenkins is a player that had his best moments last season when he got a lot of minutes, so it is worth riding the hot hand.
If there is one factor that is in Brooklyn’s favor in this game, it is their frontcourt size. Paul Reed has done a fantastic job filling in for Jalen Duren, but he is a bit undersized for a full-time starting center. Brooklyn has Day’Ron Sharpe, Julius Randle, and Michael Porter Jr. in their starting frontcourt and all three are 6’9” or above. The only one of those three that can be classified as a “good” defender is Sharpe, but all of them are good rebounders so I could see the Nets having an advantage on the glass.
At full health, it is difficult to see a world where the Pistons lose this game, but without Jalen Duren to provide a bit more offensive punch and possibly not having Isaiah Joe, this could end up being another ugly game for the Pistons that they have to win with their defense.
Brooklyn Nets (0-4): Mikel Brown Jr, Nolan Traore, Michael Porter Jr, Julius Randle, Day’Ron Sharpe
Detroit Pistons (4-1): Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, John Collins, Jalen Duren
Do you think the Pistons continue to win ugly or do they finally break out of their offensive slump?