What could possibly go wrong in this one?
The Pistons magic number for clinching a spot in the Playoffs and avoiding the Play-In is now down to 1. That is the good news. The bad news is that they face the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road on National TV and they will be without 3 players for sure due to suspensions from Sunday’s brawl against the Timberwolves. Those three players are Isaiah Stewart, Marcus Sasser, and Ron Holland. They are also likely without Cade Cunnningham, who is listed as doubtful.
The injury report for Oklahoma City does not feature any of their regular rotation players which sets up the possibility of this being a very long night. I wouldn’t rule out the Pistons completely, as they did just beat the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday with a short-handed roster, but they at least had most of their bench rotation and the Cavaliers have been more susceptible to losing lately than the Thunder.
You have to imagine the NBA is not thrilled with Cade Cunningham missing 2 of the 3 National TV games the Pistons have had this year due to injury, especially after they added this one to the slate just a couple weeks ago. I am sure they will punish the Pistons next year by giving them no National TV games.
Game Vitals
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
When: Wednesday, April 2 at 9:30 pm EST
Watch: ESPN
Odds: Thunder (-13.5)
Analysis
As I said above, the Pistons will likely be without Cade Cunningham and will for sure be without Marcus Sasser, Isaiah Stewart, and Ron Holland due to suspension. I would anticipate Tobias Harris returning after he was a late scratch on Sunday, but Cade was also a late scratch a week ago and has now missed every game since.
Beating the Oklahoma City Thunder at full strength was already going to be a very difficult task for the Pistons with a healthy rotation, but missing their best player along with two regular bench rotation players makes the task nearly impossible.
Any team can win any night, but as we saw against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday after the dust up and ejection of players, the Pistons are not equipped to handle the loss of this many rotation players at once. They were pretty much run off the court after the fight and that was against a Minnesota team that is not as good as the Thunder to begin with and also lost a couple of players from the fight.
The Pistons looked gassed as they were forced to shorten their rotation and play guys way more minutes than they are used to.
The Pistons were able to hang tough with the Thunder in the last matchup, but ultimately could not overcome a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 48 point masterclass. The team had no answer for him defensively and when it looked like they might steal the game in the 4th quarter, he was able to takeover and slam the door shut. That was also a Thunder team without Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who will both be playing tonight.
If there is one thing the Pistons have going for them, they will still have Ausar Thompson to throw at SGA, who is probably the closest they have to a “Shai Stopper” on the roster. The Pistons had Thompson in the last matchup and we saw how that worked out, but he is still the best equipped to handle him. But, the minutes without Ausar could get ugly as the Pistons will be forced to throw some combination of Dennis Schroder, Tim Hardaway Jr, and Malik Beasley at him.
The loss of Isaiah Stewart is big, but Paul Reed is more than capable of filling in for him. The biggest problem is actually going to be the loss of Marcus Sasser because the Pistons will once again likely be without Cade. With a healthy Cade Cunningham, Marcus Sasser isn’t even a part of the rotation, but without Cade, he is the only other player on the roster capable of handling the ball. This means that Dennis Schroder is going to be relied on for a lot of minutes with little ball handling help and you may even see two-way guard Daniss Jenkins get some playing time since he is the only other healthy point guard on the roster.
I don’t want to overreact to Cade’s injury, but him not playing in a game in which the Pistons are missing 3 rotation players leads me to be a bit more concerned about his injury than I was before. The Pistons were winning games without him, so keeping him out longer to rest up made sense, but if there was a time to play him, it would be in this game given all the circumstances.
At the end of the day, this is probably a loss regardless of whether Cade plays, but having him miss National TV games at the end of the season with a shortened rotation is a bit of a concern.
Lineups
Detroit Pistons (42-33): Dennis Schroder, Tim Hardaway Jr, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren
Oklahoma City Thunder (63-12): Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein
Question of the Day
How concerned are you about Cade Cunningham’s injury?