The Denver Nuggets travel to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Pistons for game number two of their four-game road trip.
The Nuggets enter the game on a six-game winning streak, with their latest victory coming Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves (107-106) at Target Center.
The Pistons meanwhile have been struggling losing five of their last seven games, including two of their last three games at home. Their most recent game on Saturday saw them lose to the Los Angeles Clippers 111-101 despite holding a 20-point lead (83-63) with 4:59 left in the third quarter.
Despite that comeback, the Pistons strength this season has been their defense as offensively they have struggled to score points. That’s mainly because they’re not a free-flowing offense, have low shooting percentages and are not a high assists team.
Although this has not been a very good season for the Pistons, the Nuggets must take them seriously, start quickly and play their effective style of basketball because the Pistons will try to avoid back-to-back home losses and bounce back from the ugly performance against the Clippers.
The Nuggets must watch for the Pistons center Andre Drummond, who is a big, physical, double-double guy who likes to get on the glass. Denver must watch for him when he’s especially good on the offensive side of the ball as he can combine very well with Griffin.
Also, the Nuggets have to look for guard Reggie Jackson, who’s been playing very well lately, with 29 points in his last game against the Clippers.
The Nuggets will have to use a balanced attack to overcome the Pistons on the road as Detroit is very good defending the three-point line. They will need to be very effective with their shooting and take advantage of the open shots but also attack the paint to get easy baskets from down below the rim.
Look for the Nuggets to attack the glass to be very dominant inside and overwhelm the Pistons physically to get second-chance points.
