Friday night's game between Detroit and Milwaukee features two teams that really need to get a win for their playoff hopes in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks are tied with Atlanta for the fifth seed, but they are just two games ahead of Miami and Indiana who are tied at seventh. A few slips with seven games to go could cause them to fall right out of the playoffs. That's what the Pistons want to have happen, who find themselves 2.5 games out of the eighth spot. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM Eastern time and the contest can be watched on NBA League Pass, FSN Detroit, and FSN Wisconsin.
Pistons (35-41, 5th Central)
Detroit finally broke a six-game losing hex by taking down Brooklyn 90-89 on Thursday night. Power forward Marcus Morris (14.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg) pushed them to the finish line with 28 points and 13 rebounds. As nice as the victory was, the offense has still been slacking. In the past five games, the Pistons are averaging 92.6 points. If that doesn't improve, they'll stay on the outside looking in this season.
The team will hope Andre Drumond (14.1 ppg, 14 rpg) finds his stroke. He's only broken the double-digit mark in the scoring column once in the past five games. He's been averaging seven points in that stretch and was held to just two points against the Nets. Morris led the team the last time out against the Bucks with 26 points.
Bucks (39-36, 2nd Central)
Milwaukee has picked up a couple of solid wins recently over Charlotte and Boston, the former being a playoff hopeful and the latter being at the top of the Eastern Conference. The Bucks secured the win over the East's best by shooting 52.6 percent from the field and small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (23.1 ppg, 8.5 rpg) continuing to be a wrecking ball.
Center Greg Monroe (12 ppg, 6.7 rpg) torched the Pistons the last time out with 25 points and 13 boards back on February 13th. Milwaukee went on to dominate that contest 102-89.
The Bucks find themselves as an 8.5-point favorite and the total O/U is set at 197.5 points. Detroit is just 1-5 against the spread in their last six meetings at Milwaukee.
