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Pistons host Wizards on Monday night
By: Sam Chase - StatFox
Published: 4/10/2017  at  7:24:00 AM
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WASHINGTON WIZARDS (48-32)

at DETROIT PISTONS (37-43)

Tip-off: Monday, 8:0 p.m. ET
Line: Detroit -1, Total: 210

It’s the last game at The Palace at Auburn Hills when the Pistons host the Wizards on Monday.

After escaping Madison Square Garden with a 106-103 win over the Knicks on Thursday night (NYK +6), the Wizards fell by the exact same score to the Heat at home on Saturday (MIA +3.5). They have already clinched the Southeast Division title at 48-32 (40-39-1 ATS) and are locked into the Eastern Conference’s fourth seed—and home-court advantage in the conference quarterfinals—after the No. 3 seed Raptors won on Saturday. They can reach the 50-win plateau for the first time since 1979 by winning their final two regular season games, the first of which takes Monday night against the Pistons in Detroit. The Pistons have won two straight games against Western Conference playoff teams with victories over Memphis and Houston, but they are officially eliminated from the playoffs at 37-43 (38-42 ATS). Monday marks the last ever Pistons game in The Palace of Auburn Hills, as the team will move to a new downtown arena next season. Since 1996, teams coming off a close loss of no more than three points to a division rival and looking to revenge a loss of no more than three points (Detroit beat Washington 113-112 on Jan. 21) are 9-32 ATS when the line is set between +3 and -3. In the same timeframe, games involving a road team coming off a loss of three points or fewer and a team that has topped 100 points in four straight games are 77-37 Over against totals of 200 or more. Detroit PG Reggie Jackson is out for the year with a knee injury. Washington SF Otto Porter is questionable to play.

Porter (13.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.5 SPG) had not missed a single game all season until Saturday, when he sat against the Heat with what appears to be a minor injury. It has been a breakout fourth season for the former third overall pick, as he is averaging career highs across the board and is 21st in the league in shooting percentage (51.6%, second among non-PF/Cs). With no room to improve on their playoff seeding, don’t be surprised if the Wiz opt to rest him. It appears that everyone else is a go, though, as PF Markieff Morris (13.9 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.1 SPG) scored 21 points in 30 minutes on Saturday after having sat out the Knicks game with a small ankle issue. PF Jason Smith (5.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG) started for Morris on Thursday and SF Kelly Oubre Jr. (6.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG) started for Porter on Saturday; Oubre regularly gets significant minutes off the bench. The other frontcourt starter is C Marcin Gortat (10.7 PG, 10.4 RPG), who lined up with his season averages on Saturday in posting 11 points and 11 rebounds. The team’s stars are in its backcourt, though, and PG John Wall (23.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 10.7 APG, 2.0 SPG) and SG Bradley Beal (23.0 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.1 SPG) have been among the best players in the East this year. They had an uncharacteristically low 32 combined points against the Heat, which was a large reason for the Wizards losing.

Former San Antonio Spur Boban Marjanovic (5.1 PPG, 3.4 RPG) has been the difference-maker in Detroit’s two recent wins: He had 27 points and 12 rebounds in only 28 minutes against the Rockets, and he had 14 (on six shots) and 10 in 23 minutes against the Grizzlies. Boban had sat out the team’s previous five games, and his addition to the lineup now looks like a no-brainer. With Jackson (14.5 PPG, 5.2 APG) out—and having long been out of favor—Ish Smith (9.1 PPG, 5.1 APG) is the team’s starting point guard. He scored 11 against Memphis, but had scored at least 15 points in seven consecutive games leading into that one. His seven assists against the Grizz were more than any he had during a game in that stretch, though. Along with Marjanovic, the Pistons’ leading scorer in that game was SF Reggie Bullock (3.9 PPG), as he took advantage of extra minutes as the team rested SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (13.8 PPG) and PF Marcus Morris (14.0 PPG, 4.6 RPG). In double figures off the bench was PG Beno Udrih with 11 but, oddly, the team waived him Monday morning and picked up G Lorenzo Brown. C Andre Drummond (13.7 PPG, 13.8 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 1.1 BPG) has been incredibly quiet as far as scoring in recent games, averaging 6.6 PPG and reaching double-digits only once in his last five games. He is, however, still putting up 11.6 RPG in that span. The team’s leading scorer on the year is SF Tobias Harris (16.2 PPG, 5.1 RPG), whose best recent game was a 23-point outing against the Bucks on March 31.


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