Tonight the Knicks (7-14) travel to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Pistons (10-7). Both teams are on mini-win streaks, the Knicks at three and the Pistons at two. So someone will be starting over tonight. It remains to be seen who. Enes Kanter is coming off the best game of the season for him and will be sure to try and keep that going.
For the Knicks the Damyean Dotson watch will continue. Dotson had been contributing heartily to the team’s minimal successes. Mario Hezonja has done very little in his minutes, taking over for D.Dot, but he certainly brings a lot of slicing and swiftness to the offense.
Projected Starters
Key Matchup
Keep your eyes on Blake Griffin versus Noah Vonleh. Griffin has been a force for the Pistons this season. He is getting nearly 25 & 10 every night, the points per game would be a career high if he maintains this pace. Detroit also runs a lot of offense through Griffin. As we saw against the Grizzlies, Vonleh got the assignment against their pivot playmaker. The difference will be Griffin is fleet of foot, if not the leaper he once was. Griffin’s five assists a night is another factor to watch for. The cherry on top of the eye jammy is Blake hitting .385% on just over six 3-pointers a night. Can Vonleh turn up the heat on the funny man tonight? We shall see.
Prediction
The Pistons deny Enes Kanter the chance to eat against flimsy rookies. Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin and Zaza Pachulia prove too big and thick for Kanter to drill into the paint and mine for easy buckets. The guards will be able to find their way into open spaces but won’t be able to convert quite enough to give enough of a comfortable lead. Reggie Jackson wins it at the buzzer.
Knicks by -2.
Warm Up Music
There are way too many good ones but give me this brolic thumper: