A battle of Eastern Conference middle-class teams
If there is one thing that scares me about the Atlanta Hawks , it is Dyson Daniels. If there is one thing that scares even more than Dyson Daniels, it is Dyson Daniels guarding Cade Cunningham one game after the Pistons guard committed 10 turnovers.
It should be noted, the Pistons won that game, and won it against a team better than the Hawks (the Houston Rockets , if you do not recall). But we can’t count on a team being able to survive a game where they commit 22 turnovers, many of them self-inflicted mistakes.
Daniels will eat you up if you let him. He’s the most dogged one-on-one defender in the NBA at the point of attack, and the Pistons need a plan to mitigate his effectiveness. That means both taking the ball out of Cade’s hands for stretches and also means Cade must focus on tightening his handle and eliminating any imprecision in his passes. If Cade and the Pistons can manage to do that, they could win this game. If not then it could be an extremely long night.
Game Vitals
When: 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons +2.5
Projected Lineups
Detroit Pistons
(22-21)
Cade Cunningham, Tim Hardaway Jr, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren
Atlanta Hawks
(22-20)
Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Vit Krejci, Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu