Pistons vs. Blazers preview: Post-trade deadline action between two lottery-bound teams

It is unknown whether the Pistons will make any other moves after acquiring Simone Fonteccio, Troy Brown Jr, and Shake Milton in seperate trades yesterday. You can read our analysis on those deals on Detroit Bad Boys.

One thing that is known, is that the Pistons will be short-handed, as none of the players they acquired can play. They could be without a couple more players if any trades happen, but we should see Cade Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanovic as long as Bogdanovic is still a part of this team.

The Blazers will have a couple players out, but probably won’t have any drastic changes to their roster happening on trade deadline day. The Blazers will be favored in this one, but the Pistons are coming off an impressive win over the Kings with their short-handed rotation.

Game Vitals

Where: Moda Center in Portland, OR
When: Thursday, February 8 at 10 pm EST
Watch: Bally Sports Detroit
Odds: Blazers (-5.5)

Analysis

There is uncertainty around who will play for the Pistons, but one player that will be playing is Jaden Ivey, and he is coming off a career-night against the Sacramento Kings last night. He scored 37 points including 14 in the 4th quarter to save the Pistons from what looked like another 3rd quarter collapse after playing very well in the 1st half.

It will be interesting to see how much the Pistons ride the hot hand with Cade Cunningham probably back today after not playing yesterday for knee injury management. There is a world where both players form a lethal backcourt that can score and create for others, but so far the results have been mixed when the two play together. Both players need to sacrifice a bit and play off each other, but it seems like Ivey is usually the one taking the back seat.

The Pistons roster is starting to make more sense around the margins, especially with the trades made yesterday, so now it is time for Ivey and Cade to show why they were top picks in the draft and continue to develop chemistry playing together.

The Blazers will be without young stud Shaedon Sharpe, who torched the Pistons for 29 points in the last matchup. They could also be without Scoot Henderson and DeAndre Ayton who are both questionable. If all of those players are out, that makes this a winnable game for the Pistons, as long as they bring the energy on the 2nd night of a back-to-back on the road. The trades made yesterday didn’t seem to put a damper on the Pistons’ players spirits, so we will see if any additional moves today possibly have an effect.

The Pistons will be facing old friend Jerami Grant, who despite having interest in the trade market, sounds like he will remain a Blazer. He had 24 in the last matchup, but also had 36 points and 26 points in the two matchups last season, so he definitely tries to step up his play against his old team.

The last time these two teams squared off, the Pistons were riding high after starting the season 2-1 and had a double digit lead heading into halftime. Things came unraveled for the Pistons in the second half and they proceeded to lose by 9 and kick off what became a 28 game losing streak.

The Pistons have been playing much better lately, just like they were heading into the last matchup, so let’s hope this doesn’t kick off another long losing streak.