Pistons vs. Hawks preview: Battle for the 6th seed in Atlanta

Who would have thought that the Pistons would be playing meaningful games in late-January and talking about whether they should be buyers at the trade deadline? After an impressive win over the Rockets on Monday, the Pistons have a chance to take down another playoff team on the road in Atlanta.

Although we are still a couple months away from the playoffs, this game can put the Pistons up 2-0 on the season series against the Hawks and move them into the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. The seeding obviously doesn’t matter at this point in the season, but the head-to-head standings could come into play as both teams are looking to be heading to a similar record on the season.

In the last matchup with the Hawks, the Pistons narrowly came out victorious after blowing a huge lead. Let’s not have that happen again.

Game Vitals

Where: State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA
When: Wednesday, January 22 at 7:30 pm EST
Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Hawks (-2.5)

Analysis

After earning the number 1 overall pick, many people expected the Hawks to enter a full-on rebuild. Instead, they reworked the roster around Trae Young and breakout star, Jalen Johnson, and find themselves fighting for a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. You can look at the Hawks record and say that they are basically the same as last year’s team, but this team is much better equipped for the future with young players with upside and solid veterans around them.

The Pistons are in the same boat, although they went through the absolute lowest point you can go to get here. This should be a fun game between two up-and-coming Eastern Conference teams.

The Hawks will be without number one overall pick, Zaccharie Risacher due to injury and could also be without Jalen Johnson due to a shoulder injury. He is currently listed as a questionable, but I am going to assume that he will end up playing as it will make this a far more interesting game.

Trae Young is having an All Star caliber season just like Cade Cunningham is as he leads the league in Assists and is averaging 23.3 points per game, albeit on lower shooting percentages than Cade. Funnily enough, both players average 4.5 turnover per game.

Cade Cunningham and Trae Young are both the engine of the offense of their respective teams, but Young does have a little bit better of a supporting cast with Jalen Johnson being better than anybody else on the Pistons’ roster.

If Johnson does play, I would expect Ausar Thompson to get the chance to guard him as slowing him down has been a challenge for a lot of teams this season. He is currently sporting averages of 19.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 5.2 assists while also being a high-end defender.

The Hawks also have another high-end defender in Dyson Daniels, who leads the league in steals. Given how turnover prone Cade Cunningham is and the lack of defense that Trae Young provides, I would expect Daniels to spend most of his night trying to slow down Cade. In the last matchup, Cade only had 22 points and Dyson Daniels had 7 steals and played a huge role in the Hawks’ near comeback.

Jalen Duren is coming off arguably his best game of the season against the Rockets where he outplayed Alperen Sengun. When the opposing team’s center is not a high volume 3-point shooter, Jalen Duren does much better on defense, so hopefully he can keep his strong play going against Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu. He won’t have the athletic advantage against those two like he did against Sengun, but neither player are taking a ton of 3s, so he won’t have to play out on the perimeter as much.

The Pistons just came out victorious against one of the best defensive teams in the league in the Houston Rockets, and although the Hawks have some solid defensive players, they are not anywhere near the level defensively as the Rockets. This game very much could come down to which of the All Star hopefuls steps up more. If Jalen Johnson does not play, that would help the Pistons a ton in trying to get another impressive win on the road.