1/24 Utah at Detroit
5:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass
Opponent record: 22-22
Season series: Tied 0-0
As I mentioned in the intro, it’s been a weird season for the Detroit Pistons. After a nice start to the season, they’ve apparently fallen off a cliff. They’ve lost seven of their last ten and are currently riding a four-game losing streak. They’ll have a good chance to turn that around this afternoon when they host the Brooklyn Nets, but the way they’ve been playing, there’s no guarantee that they’ll come out on top in that one either.
Tobias Harris has been the biggest revelation for the Pistons this season as he’s averaging 18 points per game on 45.6 percent shooting from the field and 41.7 percent from deep while also adding 5.1 rebounds per contest. He’s had some big games this season where he has showcased his offensive arsenal and the Jazz will need to make it a major point of emphasis to keep him in check.
After Harris, though, Detroit’s next three leading scorers have been somewhat disappointing. Avery Bradley (15.7 ppg), despite shooting the three well, has struggled from the field at 41.5 percent. He’s also been apt to turn the ball over and has overall been a net negative for the Pistons. Reggie Jackson (14.6 ppg) has been out for nearly a month with an ankle injury and even when he was active, he struggled to connect from deep at 33.9 percent shooting.
Finally, while Andre Drummond hasn’t been bad by any means with 14.5 points and a career-high 15.1 rebounds per game to go along with his best free throw percentage of his career by a long shot (63 percent), I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Detroit would like to see more out of their heralded big man, especially of late.
And while both teams are obviously different from last season, the Utah Jazz matched up extremely well against Detroit in 2016-17. The Jazz handily won both contests – by 33 in Salt Lake City and 14 in Detroit. Even with how poorly Utah has played on the road this year, when considering their recent success over Detroit, the Pistons’ recent slump and their overall disappointing play, I’m feeling optimistic that the Jazz could very well come out in top on this one.
This might be going out on a major limb considering that the Pistons are still a good team and the Jazz haven’t even been that in many of their contests of late, but I’m still going to take the risk and pin the Jazz as narrow winners in this road match-up.
My Prediction: Jazz Win
Final Score: Utah 99, Detroit 96