The Pistons have a golden opportunity to get over .500 and keep their perfect 2025 in tact.
The Pistons haven’t made things easy along the way, but they have finally gotten to .500 this late in the season since 2019 when Blake Griffin was an All-NBA 3rd teamer. It has been a long time coming for a franchise that has sunken to the lowest lows since that season.
The Pistons are not a perfect team, but they are playing hard and winning games and that is all that you can ask for at this point. They now have a chance to move their four game winning streak up to five against a Nets team that looks drastically different than when they faced off in early-November.
The Nets are not a very good team, but they can catch you off guard like they did against Bucks last Thursday.
Game Vitals
Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY
When: Wednesday, January 8 at 7:30 pm EST
Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons (-8.5)
Analysis
The Brooklyn Nets started off the season better than a lot of people thought and were in the playoff picture through the first 20 games of the season. When these two teams faced off on November 3, it was the Nets that entered with a .500 record at 3-3.
Since that point, however, the Nets have put themselves back on track for the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes by trading Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith while actively looking to trade Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson. Neither one of Thomas or Johnson will be playing in this game due to injury, but I would suspect we will not see either player when these two teams face off for the final time this season on March 1. I would also suspect the Nets won’t have a ton more wins at that point either given their current trajectory with the roster.
The Nets are in the early stages of their rebuild, but from previous deals made with the idea of staying competitive after their failed Big 3, it has left them with them with some players that are coveted by other teams and are too good for the Nets to be in the bottom of the standings where they want to be. That is why they have started to make some deals and will continue to do so up until the trade deadline I would assume.
Without Cameron Johnson and Cam Thomas for sure and possibly no D’Angelo Russell, there are not a ton of high-end NBA Players left on the Nets roster. They have some fun players that can do some fun things like Noah Clowney and Jalen Wilson, but they don’t exactly have a coherent roster that can compete every single night.
In theory, this should be an easy win for the Pistons, who are on a winning streak and playing their best basketball in a long time, even on the road. However, as has been evidenced by double digit comebacks that were needed against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday and the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, the Pistons cannot seem to get out of their own way when they are playing inferior teams. Both of those games were at home, which helped energize them when they fell behind, but they won’t have that luxury in this game.
It isn’t just those two games that are the samples of poor play against bad teams, the Pistons gave up 48 points to the Utah Jazz at home in the 1st quarter a few weeks ago. You would think a team with solid veterans helping the young players learn to play hard would not have multiple instances of absolutely terrible starts against inferior teams, but that is the reality.
In both the aforementioned games, the Pistons were able to turn up the effort defensively in the 2nd half and overcome the deficit pretty fast, but it shouldn’t be coming to that if you want to be taken seriously. The Pistons are a playoff team right now and playoff teams put away undermanned teams like the Nets early so they do not have to fight until the end.
It is time for the Pistons to finally do that and give themselves a bit of a break after playing 5 games in the last 8 days. There is also the added bonus of an over .500 record at the end of the night if you can play hard and play well from the beginning.
Lineups
Brooklyn Nets (13-23): Ben Simmons, Keon Johnson, Ziaire Williams, Noah Clowney, Nic Claxton
Detroit Pistons (18-18): Cade Cunningham, Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren
Question of the Day
Do you think the Pistons can keep themselves around .500 the whole season or will there be a drop-off at some point?