Pistons vs. Bulls preview: First game of back-to-back against the Bulls

The NBA has some weird scheduling quirks, and one of the weirdest is back-to-back games against the same team. It doesn’t always happen, but every team seems to have at least one of these a season. I am sure it has to do with reducing travel during a long season by knocking out a couple of road games, but in most cases these is a home game and then a road game against the same team.

If there is one positive about this stretch of games it is that it comes against a Chicago Bulls team that seems like they want to rebuild, but also won’t fully buy-in on doing it. They traded away Zach LaVine at the deadline, but did not trade Nikola Vucevic and also extended Lonzo Ball. They also ended up with like 6 point guards on their roster as they got back Tre Jones in the Zach LaVine trade. The roster is a mess, but they probably still left themselves in position to compete for the Play-In Tournament.

I am not exactly sure what is going on, but one thing that I do know is that he Pistons have a great chance to enter the All Star break on a 4 game winning streak by winning a couple of very winnable games against the Bulls.

Game Vitals

Where: United Center in Chicago, IL
When: Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 8 pm EST
Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons (-4.5)

Analysis

The last time these two teams faced off was a game in which Zach LaVine missed, so they have already kind of faced the current iteration of the Bulls minus the log jam at point guard. In that game, the Bulls were able to keep things close by taking 52 threes and making 19 of them.

That is how the 2024-2025 Chicago Bulls play and sometimes it works and other times they lose by a lot when their shots are not falling. They play fast, they don’t really play much defense, but they are definitely going to get up a lot of 3s.

Without Zach LaVine, the Bulls are not as good on offense, but they still have plenty of guys that can make threes. Unfortunately for the Pistons, one of those guys is Nikola Vucevic and Jalen Duren struggles mightily to guard him. I was hoping we would no longer have to worry about him after the deadline because the Bulls traded him, but that did not happen so now the Pistons have to get their night ruined by Vucevic once again.

In the first matchup between these teams, Vucevic had 29 points in a Bulls win and in the aforementioned game, he ended up with a triple-double. However, the important thing is that he is 12-of-14 from beyond the arc across those two games.

The Bulls will be mostly healthy, but will be without Lonzo Ball. They could also be without Ayo Dosunmu, but even if both players are out, they still have plenty of point guards to fill in.

This game and tomorrow night’s game should both be easily winnable for the Pistons. If the Bulls get hot from beyond the arc, they will make it closer than it should be, but the Pistons are the better team and shouldn’t have any issues with this version of the Bulls even if Nikola Vucevic scares me.

The Pistons are fully healthy and had a game to integrate Dennis Schroder into the rotation. It will still take a few more games to get into a rhythm, but having somebody to take some pressure off of Cade Cunningham handling the ball will help for getting more production out of the bench, and keep Cade fresher down the stretch.

The Pistons definitely cannot look past the Bulls, as they avoided a near disaster on Sunday against the Hornets after getting complacent after getting out to a huge lead early. The Bulls are a better team than the one the Hornets had on the floor on Sunday, so if the Pistons display a similar effort, the Bulls are better equipped to take advantage of it.

Hopefully that game was a wake-up call and the Pistons can put the Bulls away early so they can save a little bit of energy for tomorrow night’s game.