Gaining ground in the Eastern Conference is not easy this season. However, there are only two games separating the third place team and the eighth place team. Games like Monday's against the Brooklyn Nets are the ones the Detroit Pistons cannot afford to lose.
When: Monday, February 1st, 2015 at 7:30 PM
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
Watch: Fox Sports Detroit
Game Analysis
As Mary Poppins said: "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." Lining a back-to-back against the top two Eastern Conference teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors, with games against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets can be seen as a spoonful of sugar. The Pistons, who have struggled in recent weeks, have as many wins in their last 11 games as the Nets do in their last 20...four.
In that span, both teams have won games they had no business winning. The Nets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by 10 and the Pistons beat the Golden State Warriors by 18. They've also lost games they very well should have won.
The last time these two teams met in Brooklyn, the Nets beat the Pistons to send them to under .500 for the first, and only, time this season at 8-9. With the Pistons currently two games above .500, they don't have to worry about that. But they also cannot play down to their competition as they have done in the past.
Last time we met
January 9th, 2016 at The Palace - Pistons 103, Nets 89
The Pistons exacted revenge from their loss to the Nets earlier in the season. Both centers had a nice duel going on as Brook Lopez would finish with an efficient 19 points (8-for-11 shooting), seven rebounds and three blocks to Andre Drummond's 23 points (11-for-15 shooting), 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Reggie Jackson had a strong game against backup Shane Larkin, scoring 23 points on 10-for-17 shooting (3-for-4 from distance) as well as dishing out eight assists against only two turnovers.
Players to Watch
Pistons: Andre Drummond
Drummond has been called out by his coach. "It starts with Andre's not dominating on the boards. He's just not," Van Gundy said after the Pistons loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday. He's right. In the last four games, he has been held to eight or fewer rebounds three times. Van Gundy believes it is because his focus is elsewhere. "His focus, everybody else's focus, has gone to free-throw shooting instead of to the fact that he needs to be a dominant rebounder. I don't think his head's where it needs to be right now." Well it needs to get there with a game against Brook Lopez.
Nets: Brook Lopez
In Lopez's last two games, he has averaged 30.5 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocked shots. Granted, his opponents were Zaza Pachulia and Omer Asik. In his game before that, he only had 13 points against Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire (though on efficient 5-for-9 shooting). With Drummond's focus not being where it should be, Lopez could go off offensively.
Injuries
Pistons: Jodie Meeks (Ankle)
Nets: N/A
Starting Lineup
Pistons: Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Ersan Ilyasova, Drummond
Nets: Donald Sloan, Wayne Ellington, Joe Johnson, Thaddeus Young, Lopez
Prediction
Pistons 104, Nets 97
Community Question
How do you feel about Stan's comments regarding Dre's focus, and do you think it will wake him up?