After a blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers last Monday, things were not looking great for the Pistons. Cade Cunningham was struggling and the offense in general had not looked good. Since that game, the Pistons have rattled off three wins in a row and their offense, particularly Cunningham, have looked much better. They even looked good in a neutral environment in Mexico, which can always be weird for teams.
The Pistons now look primed to continue that winning streak over the rest of the week as they start a stretch of winnable games tonight against the Utah Jazz. This is still the NBA and the Utah Jazz have proven to be a feisty team if they are not taken seriously, but the Pistons are favored in this game for a reason.
There are now expectations for the Pistons and those expectations include beating teams like the Utah Jazz at home.
**Where:** Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI
**When:** Wednesday, November 5 at 7 pm EST
**Watch:** Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit
**Odds:** Pistons (-10.5)
The story of the season so far for the Pistons has been very slow starts to games that have put them behind to where they need to play comeback the whole game. In their win over Dallas in Mexico City on Saturday and Monday’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies, that didn’t happen and it allowed the Pistons to play a bit more comfortably throughout the game. They still ended up having to fight at the end to secure the win, but getting off to a better start to where you are not down 15 points early makes games a little bit easier.
Seeing the Pistons favored by double digits in this game, even against a team like the Jazz, is shocking given where things were just a couple years ago. However, the Utah Jazz are not a team to be taken lightly. They have earned their 3-4 record and even have wins over the Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics.
Many people expected the Utah Jazz to be one of the worst teams in the league this season, and that still very likely could happen, but Coach Will Hardy has his team playing hard and giving better teams a tough out anytime they have to face the Utah Jazz.
They have been led by Lauri Markkanen, who has had a bit of a bounceback so far this season after a down year last season. At the time of writing, he is averaging 31.1 points per game and 7 rebounds and shooting 37% from beyond the arc. He also already has a 50-point game in just the 3rd game of the season.
The Jazz do not have a ton of threats outside of Lauri Markkanen, except for Keyonte George, who is putting together the best season of his career as the starting point guard. He spent a lot of time last season coming off the bench as a scorer, but he has shown a lot of progress as an all-around point guard which bodes well for the future of the Jazz since he is still only 21 years old.
The Jazz also have Ace Bailey, who they took in the 1st round of the draft. Bailey is yet to make much of an impact this season getting spot minutes off the bench, but he has the ability to get hot as a scorer.
The Jazz will be without starting center Walker Kessler which will make attacking the paint a little easier. The Pistons are going to be without Tobias Harris once again and Marcus Sasser, so I would expect the Pistons to once again start Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren to counter the Markkanen-Nurkic frontline.
Isaiah Stewart had a career night against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday and showed that he could possibly be the answer at the four long-term for the Pistons. He had a careeer-high 26 points and also added 14 rebounds and 4 blocks while hitting a couple of threes. If he can continue to shoot a higher volume of 3s and still shoot a respectable percentage, teams are going to have to guard him more beyond the arc and that will open up the offense.
This is a favorable matchup for Cade Cunningham as the Jazz don’t have any perimeter stoppers to slow him down and they will also have less resistance inside with Kessler being out. After a slow start to the season after seeing a few teams with the perimeter defenders needed to slow him down, Cade has bounced back in a big way during the winning streak with efficient scoring and high-level offensive creation with minimal turnovers.
It goes without saying, but the Pistons go when Cade goes and the reason for better offense and better starts during this winning streak has been pretty much solely because of Cade. He isn’t starting as slow and taking over games when the team needs an offensive boost, which is what you expect out of your franchise player.
If Cade can keep that going, I don’t see a way the Pistons lose this game even if they are unable to slow down Lauri Markkanen.
**Detroit Pistons (5-2):** Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren
**Utah Jazz (3-4):** Keyonte George, Svi Mykhailiuk, Taylor Hendricks, Lauri Markkanen, Jusuf Nurkic
How long do you see the Pistons winning streak lasting?
See More:
* [Detroit Pistons Game Day](/detroit-pistons-game-day)
* [Pistons Previews](/pistons-game-previews)