Pistons take their 13-game losing streak to Washington, DC...
Game tips at 7:00 pm ET
Detroit Pistons: 11-25 (3-16 road)
Washington Wizards: 12-23 (6-10 home)
Oppo Research
The Pistons have lost 13 games in a row, yet they're not far behind the Wizards right now. That should tell you something. With all the Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton gun hoopla still hovering over the team (only eight Wizards were at this morning's shootaround due to the case), the last thing the Wizards needed was another distraction. Today, Flip Saunders suspended Andray Blatche for tonight's game due to 'conduct detrimental to the team.' With everything that's going on, though, the Wiz have done a decent job hiding their problems and competing on a nightly basis (they're three days removed from beating the Magic).
The Wizards push the ball a good bit (9th in the NBA in pace), so tonight wouldn't be a bad night for Stuckey to stick to his word and get the Pistons running more. This is the first game of a back-to-back for the Wizards -- they travel to Atlanta tomorrow -- and they have a tough stretch of games coming up. With all the other stuff going on in their organization, too, they could be overlooking the hapless Pistons and chalking this one up as an automatic W, as long as they have enough players to take the floor.
The Drama
The Wizards have enough of their own drama going on to get caught up in any with Detroit.
Keys for Detroit
Let Ben Gordon shoot, and shoot a lot: Assuming he's good to go tonight, the Pistons need to just let this man loose. They're paying him good money and both times he put up 20 shots this season, he scored 25 and shot at a high percentage. I'm ready to watch him chuck it at will because that's what made him so fun to watch while he was in Chicago.
Play unlike the last 13 games and win: Pretty self explanatory.
Fill in the rest in the comments...
Question of the Game
Will the Pistons be wearing teal or the red, white, and blue tonight?