Pistons vs. Bucks preview and GameThread: Pistons going for third straight preseason win

Game Vitals

Where: Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan
When: Monday, October 17, 7:30 p.m. Eastern
Watch: Fox Sports Detroit livestream

The Pistons have started to hit their stride in the preseason. The Philadelphia 76ers are always helpful for that sort of thing.

After a dominant performance in Philly, the Pistons have jumped up to the top defensive rating in the preseason - holding a team to 76 points will do that for you.

They should be able to continue the tough defense against a Milwaukee Bucks team that has struggled to point points on the board so far this preseason. The Bucks haven’t cracked 90 points since their preseason opener, and have dropped their last two games by 18 and 21 point margins.

They’ll also be without point guard Michael Carter-Williams, as they helped the Chicago Bulls in their efforts to acquire all of the backcourt players who can’t shoot. In his place, the Bucks will presumably be going all in on the Point Giannis experiment. Poor Ish Smith is going to look so tiny out there.

For the Pistons, they could use an improvement on their three point shooting and passing. So far this preseason they’re shooting just 27 percent from deep. Their 58 percent assist percentage is slightly up over last season, but still not particularly good.

Marcus Morris will miss tonight’s game, continuing to rest up his knee tendonitis. He’s expected back for Wednesday preseason game against the Toronto Raptors. Stanley Johnson will sit out tonight to rest a sore foot and Aron Baynes is a question mark with a sore back.