After looking like the team that wanted to miss the playoffs the least amongst the likes of the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, the Pistons have been tasked with trying to oust the best team in the NBA in the first round of the Playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Some fans out there will see this as a useless series for Detroit who not only don’t matchup well against Milwaukee but will also push the notion that the team should have tanked instead tried to make the playoffs.
However lets be honest with ourselves here. The Pistons were never had a legitimate shot at tanking in the East. The bottom half of the Conference (both really) are just too fucking terrible which is why the Pistons are indeed stuck in an NBA purgatory given their cap situation and the gap between themselves and the top of the East.
How the Pistons have a chance
Anyways, like we mentioned the Pistons don’t matchup well against the Bucks and it was Milwaukee who took all four games against Detroit in the regular season. Not that a regular season record matters a whole lot at this point. Hell we’ve seen this backfire on Detroit teams in the past but if the Pistons are going to beat Milwaukee they have to be very specific in the way they do it.
The Bucks not only possessed the League’s best rated defense (104.9) they did a great job at clogging the lane behind guys like Brook Lopez and the best player in the NBA Giannis Antetokounmpo. So if the Pistons are looking to win games by generating points in the paint they may as well concede the next four games to Milwaukee and hit the links early.
The Bucks however will give up the three.
Milwaukee led the NBA in allowing opponents to take 35.3 attempts from beyond the arc against them. However the Bucks only allowed 23.9 percent of their opponents’ shots to be at the rim meaning the Pistons are going to have to be pretty perfect from downtown.
Key player for the Pistons
With Detroit’s only perceivable chance at knocking off the Bucks being their success from the three point line, it would seem the players for the Pistons are going to be their shooters, notably Reggie Jackson.
Jackson has the capability to get hot will more than likely be matched up against Eric Bledsoe for the Bucks. Meanwhile the Pistons point guard managed a .369 percentage from three and a .421 field goal percentage during the regular season in 2018-19.
Speaking of getting hot, the Pistons will definitely be relying on some sharp shooting from Luke Kennard off the bench. In his second season, Kennard was pretty deadly at times from downtown managing a three-point percentage of .394 and .438 field goal percentage.
Who wins?
Crazier things have happened in the NBA than the Pistons taking down the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks. However with Blake Griffin not being at 100 percent Detroit is forced to be an even more one dimensional team against Milwaukee with makes things even easier for them.
The Pistons need to take this one game at a time. Split the first two games in Milwaukee, get home court advantage and see where things go from there.
Bucks win series 4-1.
