Close Run Battle

This week we’re looking at the big match up between the Detroit Pistons with their new look squad and the Dallas Mavericks whom are facing their old fan favourite debuting for his new team as the Pistons look to make a surge up the standings and securing a playoff spot.

The Pistons:

Detroit have made it their goal this year to compete and more power to them for doing so! Copping a Klay Thompson season ender before the campaign even begins you’d be forgiven for pressing snooze and waking up next year. The Pistons came out firing though, behind MIP candidate (NBA) Jerami Grant, and went on a tare to start the year. They have cooled a little, sure, but 17-12 is still a strong record and has them 7^th in the East which is ridiculously strong, and 3 games inside the playoff bubble. That’s not good enough for Justin and the Pitons and they this week shipped out Klay for Vucevic and brought in Clarkson’s instant offence and JaVale’s strong bench play to boot. They want it, now, and they are out to get it. Vuc is playing for his 3^rd team now this year after his long Dallas tenure ended and makes his new team debut against his long time old home.

The Mavs:

Dallas have been in a little bit of a funk since losing their long long time GM earlier in the year…well at least off the court. 19-13 and 3 games clear in 3^rd in the West is far from a funk on the court, though it is a little worse than they started out. The team moved on from Vucevic early and embarked on a slight rebuild before Smokey decided he was out and then there’s been at least one subsequent GM who has also moved on again without leaving a blip. The team for that reason has been going through the motions a little and while competing, is still in need of a true direction. They meet their old favourite here as he starts his new journey, and the team is still slightly better than the Pistons on paper probably, so the battle is going to be real!

The Projected Match-Ups:

C: Nikola Vucevic Vs  Wendell Carter Jr  

Vuc is yet to make his Detroit debut, but the man has been one of the best bigs in the league for a number of years now and on new Orleans this year he’s averaged 19/14/1/1/1 on 59/32/93 shooting. In Detroit, you can probably expect at least as much with a good point guard and less pressure on him as he gives the Pistons a legit offensive threat. Today, the Mavs are starting Wendell Carter Jr who is healthy again and has been coming off the bench mostly behind Marvin Bagley. As a starter, he’s averaging 15/14/1/1/2 however and similar shooting splits to Vuc at 51/43/92, but that’s a small sample size of 4 games. None the less, it should be a close match up but Vuc will be the difference.

PF: Richaun Holmes  Vs  Otto Porter

Holmes brings great size to the Pistons line up and to be hones, he’s better than Lauri, particularly in this engine so he was a steal to get with a pick. He’s averaging 9/10/1/1/1 in Detroit and he’s going to do more of the same anchoring next to the more offensive Vuc. Porter has started all the game she’s played as the PF in Dallas mostly due to the lack of size they have but he’s been rock solid with 14/11/1/1 to his name. He’s giving up a little too much to Holmes though you’d think, and Holmes should win this match up if he can keep Otto off the arc.

SF: Jerami Grant  Vs  DeMar DeRozan

In the NBA, Jerami is a pretty good bet to be the MIP on the season, but he hasn’t yet translated here due to the lack of tendency update. That old biscuit. He’s lined up mostly at PF this year, but is down to SF now due to the great size Detroit has acquired, and he averages 10/5/2/1/1 down there with much poorer shooting at 38/30/100. His match up though is none other than NLL Hall of Famer, DeMar DeRozan and he’s doing it all again this year DeMar averaging 25/4/6/1 as a SF (and 30 as a PF!). There’s no real stopping DeMar in this league and he’s going to be all over Jerami.

SG: Jordan Clarkson  Vs  Justin Holiday  

Clarkson is another new face in Detroit and he’s a welcomed addition to pick up the scoring slack that Jerami is missing with his lack of tendencies. He’s in fact the opposite to Jerami where he will fire at will and as a SG he’s averaging 16/3/2/1…in 20 minutes. He’s a near minute man at SG and that’s perfect for Detroit. His match up is the glue guy of the Mavs in this line up, Justin Holiday. Holiday is the role playing brother of the 3 (Jrue the star, Aaron the bust…I mean potential) and he’s going to help in small ways on both ends without doing a whole heap. If he can slow Jordan even a little, that helps, but he hasn’t played SG all year.

PG: Ja Morant  Vs  Chris Paul  

Ja has been great this year, taking a step up with 22/3/6/2 to his name and he’s finally got some offensive workload help with Vucevic and Clarkson in town. Is this when Ja takes yet another step? Even if he doesn’t, he has help now. He’s going to match up with one of the elite defending Gs in the league, still, at his age. Chris Paul re-emerged last year and rebuilt some value in the league. He’s not the assist guy he once was, averaging 16/2/6/2, but he’s still right up there in steals and he pesters guys all the night long. This one is a fun match up.

Bench V Bench:

RJ Barrett, Naz Reid, JaVale McGee, Bruce Brown, Elfrid Payton
Vs
Trey Burke, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Alize Johnson, Isaiah Roby, TJ McConnell

The benches are kind of chalk and cheese. The Pistons have a bevvy of talent that will produce like Barrett, Reid and JaVale, while the Mavs are more hoping they can stay afloat and get the starters back in there.

Head to Head Prediction:

With Bagley out, the size differential might be too great in my opinion. The Pistons have done well to go big, and go offensive, and the Mavs I think will struggle with that.

Pistons by 8.

-          What if the team chemistry doesn’t quite gel in Detroit yet? They’re running two brand new faces, never played together, and we don’t really know what it’s going to look like other than what we see on paper. Maybe it’s not as cracked up as we believe?