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Detroit Pistons
vs
Utah Jazz
Today's Featured Sports Pick

Game Date:
01/25/2016
9:05pm EST

Lines:
Detroit +3
Utah -3

Total:
Over 192.5 (+100)
Under 192.5 (-110)

Community Picks: Detroit Pistons 0% vs Utah Jazz 0%

Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz Thread

Team Tweets & News Articles
Detroit Pistons
Let's face it — the best and most powerful teams in the NBA don't really change from week to week. A handful of results in the middle of winter can only mean so much to a franchise's championship hopes. What does shift regularly, though, is how much interest a squad can hold over the course of a season. Every Monday, BDL's Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention. THE TOP 15 1. Cleveland Cavaliers (30-12; last week : 2): On one hand, it seems insane to fire head coach David Blatt after a season and a half of leading the East's top team, and before an all-but-ordained return to the Finals to find out how a (hopefully) healthy Cavs roster would fare against a Western wonder. On the other, it seems reasonable to fire Blatt after losses to the San Antonio Spurs and  Golden State Warriors  offered, if not cause for panic , then evidence of what many had suspected: that this iteration of the Cavs, though capable of pummeling the East, can't trade haymakers with left-coast heavyweights. Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy — one of several respected sideline stalkers to decry Cleveland's decision — described Blatt's ouster as one that "elevated all of the coach firings into the theater of the absurd," citing all the wins under Blatt's belt as proof that the world's gone mad. "It's hard to figure out what it's all about anymore, now," he said. "I don't know if anybody even knows what the expectations of coaches are anymore." And yet, that's not really true. We all know the expectations for this coach, this star, this team; LeBron James lays it out in that Chuck D-lipsyncing Samsung ad . If the Cavaliers' players and general manager David Griffin stopped believing that Blatt could "get one for The Land" — the only metric that matters here — then they had to make the move , right? The rest of this season was already all about maximizing the talents of a nine-figure roster and solving the on-court problems that have Cleveland looking eminently vulnerable. If the powers that be weren't convinced Blatt could do those things, why not let someone else experiment in that second-half laboratory? Maybe Blatt  never really had a chance once LeBron decided to come home. Maybe he never could connect with his stars; if nothing else, we know Tyronn Lue already has James' ear. (Or vice versa.) Lue also has his work cut out for him. After promising to do things better than Blatt and to hold his stars accountable, Lue watched his Cavs score 83 points in another nationally televised home loss . He then proclaimed his players out of shape and incapable of maintaining his preferred pace. Lue has a tremendous opportunity here. If he can command the respect that the Cavs seemed reluctant to give Blatt, Cleveland could find a new gear and transform into a legitimate title threat. But if this rookie head coach can't succeed where the last "rookie" failed, we could be seeing the first signs of an early sunset on what many expected to be Cavaliers' brightest days. 2. Golden State Warriors (40-4; LW: 3): Blatt's unceremonious exit stole the headlines from Friday's other big coaching story: the return of Steve Kerr . In his first game back, Kerr earned his 40th win of the season — sorry, Luke Walton — thanks largely to Stephen Curry, who celebrated with a  39-point triple-double . Pretty decent "welcome back" gift, Steph. It's hard to imagine Kerr's arrival heralding a level of performance much higher than the one the Dubs have managed in his absence. It's not easy to improve on the league's No. 1 offense and No. 2 defense, and outscoring your opposition by nearly 14 points per 100 possessions. Still, Kerr's reintegration and the Warriors' reacclimation to his nightly presence bear watching, especially considering his second game back comes against ... 3. San Antonio Spurs (38-6; LW: 1): ... a team that hasn't lost since Christmas , that continues to boast one of the stingiest defenses since the introduction of the 3-point shot , and that has outscored its opposition by 19.1 points per 100 possessions during its 13-game winning streak. Kawhi Leonard's ascent has continued unchecked, earning a well-deserved spot in the starting lineup for the 2016 Western Conference All-Star team . Danny Green still isn't where Gregg Popovich hopes he'll be come playoff time, but he's shooting nearly 40 percent from 3 during the streak , and San Antonio's league-best second-unit — led by Manu Ginobili, Boris Diaw and Patty Mills — continues to style on fools like: We had to wait 44 games, but on Monday, our wait ends: we'll finally get to see the Spurs and Warriors square off. With Golden State just one win off the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' pace for the best record in NBA history and San Antonio only two games behind while blowing away the NBA record for margin of victory , "game of the season" seems like an understatement. Except ... INJURY REPORT - Tim Duncan (soreness, right knee) is out for tomorrow's Spurs-Warriors game. — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 24, 2016 Crud. 4. Sacramento Kings (20-23; LW: 4): With apologies to Mae West , when the Kings are bad, they're good, but when they're  good , they're even better. The NBA's most delightfully bonkers bunch has won five straight and eight of 11 since a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers had George Karl questioning their guts . DeMarcus Cousins is averaging 32.5 points, 13.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals in 36.2 minutes per game this month. He just hung a career-high 48 on the Indiana Pacers in a game you'd imagine made Larry Bird briefly question that "stop playing big" thing: With Cousins mauling defenders and Rajon Rondo setting the table, Sacramento has turned in the league's seventh-most-potent offense in January while hanging around the middle of the pack in points allowed per possession. That defensive improvement has been aided by Willie Cauley-Stein's return from injury. The rookie big man is averaging two combined blocks and steals in just 19.5 minutes per game since coming back , and he can make a major difference on both ends: Sacramento has allowed just 99.2 points per 100 possessions with WCS on the floor since his return. The Kings have been 9.1 points-per-100 better when he's playing than when he's sitting, and are 12-7 when he starts. The versatile 7-footer stabilizes a shaky defense and adds even more volatile variance to an unpredictable team that now sits a game up on the Utah Jazz in the race for the West's eighth playoff spot. 5. Toronto Raptors (29-15; LW: 10):  The Raps have won eight straight and 12 of 15, roasting their opposition to the tune of 109.1 points per 100 possessions, the NBA's No. 5 offensive efficiency mark in that span, behind only the Spurs, Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers, whom Toronto smacked around on Sunday. Kyle Lowry (20.2 points, 7.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 2.1 steals per game over the last month ) will start in the Eastern backcourt at next month's All-Star Game. DeMar DeRozan won't, but after this scorching stretch he's putting up (24.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists over the last 15 games ) it would be a shock if he didn't join his comedy partner . Quality wins over the Clippers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat won't erase rough losses to the Cavs and Chicago Bulls; as  Raptors Republic wrote Sunday , Toronto will "have to start winning tough games in telling fashion" to convert doubters. Right now, though, Lowry and DeRozan form as potent a one-two punch as exists in the East, backed by a deep bench that gives the Raptors hope of challenging for the No. 1 spot. 6. Oklahoma City Thunder (33-13; LW: 9): The Thunder would have ridden a 10-game winning streak into Sunday if Damian Lillard hadn't briefly gone nuclear two weeks ago. Their top two players make up 40 percent of the Western All-Stars' starting five and (roughly) one-third of the top six candidates for this year's MVP trophy. No lineup to play more than 200 minutes together has been more dominant than Oklahoma City's starters; Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and Andre Roberson have outscored opponents by 21.5 points per 100 possessions over more than 500 minutes. The Thunder are really good and really fun — I really think that, Kevin ! Honest! — and suffer only when compared to the two historically dominant teams in front of them, and even then, only slightly. OKC will soon have its chance to turn that suffering around; six of the Thunder's seven meetings with Golden State and San Antonio are yet to come, beginning with a Feb. 6 visit to Oracle. 7. New Orleans Pelicans (16-27; LW: not ranked): As I wrote after Eric Gordon fractured his  right ring finger , if the Pelicans hope to climb out of the massive hole they dug themselves earlier this season, this seven-game homestand — which starts a stretch of 15 home games in 22 contests, with 12 coming against teams with sub-.500 road records — has to be the time. So far, so good. The Pelicans have won three straight in convincing fashion, holding the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks to 99 points each in double-digit victories. New Orleans has now won five of six, dropping only a two-point road decision to the Memphis Grizzlies last Monday. Alvin Gentry's club has the West's sixth-best point differential in January, behind only San Antonio, Golden State, the Clips, OKC and the Kings; the porous Pelicans defense has tightened, allowing 102.3 points per 100 possessions over the last 11 games, eighth-best in the NBA since Jan. 1. Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday are trending upward while Ryan Anderson bombs away, giving Anthony Davis the support he lacked earlier this season, and the Pelicans are now just four games out of the eighth seed. The $64,000 question: if the Pelicans keep making up ground on Sacramento, will general manager Dell Demps stay the course and ride it out? Or is this recent uptick too late to prevent Pelicans brass from shaking things up before the trade deadline? 8. Los Angeles Clippers (28-16; LW: 8): After winning nine straight without Blake Griffin, the Clips came back to Earth a bit this week. They fell to the Kings without DeAndre Jordan, narrowly avoided unwelcome late-game déjà vu against the Houston Rockets, gave Blatt a going-away present in Cleveland, nuked the New York Knicks and got tenderized in Toronto . Continue to Article
January 25, 2016 11:00:am EST
Detroit Pistons
Kevin Love scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, while LeBron James had 22 points and 12 assists for the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 115-102 home victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. The Cavs won for the 13th time in the past 14 meetings against the Clippers and improved to 18-3 against them all time at Quicken Loans Arena. Clippers guard Chris Paul had 30 points and nine assists, including 12 consecutive points in the first quarter to keep Los Angeles close. Continue to Article
January 21, 2016 10:53:pm EST
Detroit Pistons
Anthony Davis scored 32 points and the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Detroit Pistons 115-99 on Thursday night for their fourth victory in five games. Tyreke Evans had 22 points and 10 assists for the Pelicans, who raced to a 72-53 halftime lead and never allowed Detroit to get closer than nine points the rest of the way. The game was the first for New Orleans since starting shooting guard Eric Gordon was ruled out for four to six weeks with a fractured ring finger in his shooting hand. Continue to Article
January 21, 2016 10:46:pm EST
Detroit Pistons
Imagine Kobe Bryant, late in his final All-Star Game, going basket for basket with LeBron James, fans in Toronto on their feet as the NBA's best put on a show. Suddenly, nowhere near the action, a Western Conference player wraps his arms around Detroit's Andre Drummond for an intentional foul. There's going to be two bad free throw shooters and we're going to see guys, like, grabbing people 80 feet away from the basket,'' ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said recently. Continue to Article
January 21, 2016 7:53:pm EST
Detroit Pistons
The NBA has typically waved off any push to reform so-called "Hack-a-Shaq" rules by noting that two players, Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan and Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard, serve as the targets of the vast majority of these intentional fouls. The league will at minimum have to admit that a third name belongs on that list after the events of the second half between the Rockets and Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night. [ Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr:  The best slams from all of basketball] Down 56-47 to the visiting Pistons at halftime, interim Rockets head coach J.B. Bickerstaff entered the third quarter with a clear concept of what his team should do — foul center Andre Drummond, a 35.4-percent shooter from the line on the season, at every opportunity. Reserve wing K.J. McDaniels started the half and grabbed Drummond five times in the opening nine seconds to put the Pistons into the penalty. Here's a look at that bizarre scene: K.J. McDaniels fouled Andre Drummond 5 times in 9 seconds https://t.co/qZALdbX6Q0 — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 21, 2016 Naturally, those fouls were only the means to the end of sending Drummond to the line as many times as possible. Bickerstaff had his team do that on the following seven possessions, giving Drummond a total of 16 free throws in the opening 2:33 of the quarter. He made only five of them before Stan Van Gundy substituted Aron Baynes with 9:22 remaining after Drummond's own intentional foul to stop the clock. The Rockets trailed just 61-60 at that point and took the lead shortly thereafter, so it's hard to deny that the extreme fouling tactic was an immediate success. It did not necessarily work over the long term. Baynes played out the quarter as the Pistons took back control and rebuilt their lead to 85-77 by the third-period buzzer. Drummond re-entered at the start of the fourth and helped the Pistons build the margin up to 99-88 with 7:39 remaining in regulation, at which point Rockets big man Montrezl Harrell fouled Drummond three times in five seconds to enter the penalty again. Yet that move backfired because he made 4-of-6 attempts on three-straight possessions to ensure Houston would not try it again. Drummond left the game with 5:26 left to make it even loss of an issue, and the Pistons held on for a 123-114 win . He finished at 13-of-36 from the line for the bulk of his 17 points but set an NBA record with 23 misses. Drummond failed to match Howard's league record of 39 attempts, but perhaps he'll get another shot at the mark soon enough. Van Gundy didn't seem to appreciate it on aesthetic grounds. From Kristie Rieken for the Associated Press : ''It wasn't a chess match, it was just they wanted to foul and we let them foul,'' Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. [...] ''That's the game the league wants, so that's what fans get to watch,'' Van Gundy said. It's wrongheaded to blame the Rockets for this absurdity, because fouling Drummond got them back into the game and legitimately looked like their best defense on a night when they had trouble defending the Pistons as a whole. Howard followed a dynamic statistical performance on Monday night vs. the Clippers by spraining his ankle within the opening minute and being ruled out for the remainder of the contest. That unfortunate injury left the Rockets with poor options for containing Drummond, a double-double machine capable of controlling the paint at both ends. He finished with a plus-10 despite Houston's third-quarter run. Nevertheless, Bickerstaff said it didn't work out. From Rieken again: ''It didn't work,'' interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. ''That's it. That's all I have to say about that.'' It certainly didn't work for anyone watching the game. While it's a little inexact to say that sending a player to the line over and over again "isn't basketball" given that the rules allow it, it's downright enervating to watch and not an ideal product for a league that ultimately sells entertainment above all else. Intentional fouling is also increasingly common, with seemingly each team having at least one player who gets sent to the line in opportune moments. Arguments for and against changing the rules have been enumerated enough times that we don't have to recount them here. Yet it seems increasingly clear that commissioner Adam Silver will have to address the issue directly (via either rule changes or an explanation for not enacting them) before the start of next season, because the fouling is only becoming a bigger story around the league. That clarification will also help teams in the long run, because the current rules appear to affect the long-term value of regular targets like Drummond. If the rules do eventually change, then it'll at least get fans to focus on the more free-flowing aspects of the sport. Wednesday's game offered much more, including impressive balance for Detroit (each starter scored at least 17 points) and a very prolific triple-double for James Harden (33 points on 9-of-22 FG, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists: But everyone focused on a single player missing 23 free throws. We'll have to wait a few months to see if the NBA decides that's an acceptable outcome to a game between many of the best athletes in the world. - - - - - - - Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @FreemanEric Continue to Article
January 21, 2016 3:00:am EST
 
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