Pistons vs. Hawks Preview and Predictions

By Gracenote for Scores and Stats
by Gracenote on 12/13/2017

The Detroit Pistons are in an offensive funk that has seen them average 92.9 points during a seven-game slide, including two straight losses in which they failed to reach 85 points. The Pistons will try to snap the slide on the road when they visit the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday.

Detroit was run over 103-84 at home by the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday while playing what coach Stan Van Gundy called "extremely bad basketball," and the players are searching for answers for the offensive funk. "I feel like lately we haven't been shooting the ball very well and part of that is just not shooting the ball well, but part of that is too many guys trying to force it," forward Anthony Tolliver told reporters. "It's not in a selfish way, but in a like, 'oh, man, we've got to get it going' instead of trusting the process and trusting each other. It's not just one person, it's several guys trying to overcompensate." The Pistons could be in for a welcome respite from tough defenses against the Hawks, who allow an average of 109.3 points and surrendered at least 110 in each of their last five games - four losses. Atlanta had the misfortune of running into the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday and gave up 20 3-pointers while dropping a 123-114 decision.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, FS Southeast (Atlanta)

ABOUT THE PISTONS (14-13): Tuesday's loss seemed to mark rock bottom for Detroit, which saw its starting five go 10-of-36 from the floor. "It's my job to put a product on the floor," Van Gundy told reporters. "We didn't play well on Sunday (in a loss to Boston), but our guys competed. I've got to try to find answers. We didn't do anything right (Tuesday). We didn't compete. We didn't bring any energy to the game. That's on me as a coach." The worst of the bunch was leading scorer Tobias Harris, who struggled to two points on 0-of-7 shooting in 30 minutes.

ABOUT THE HAWKS (6-21): A recent surge by the Chicago Bulls suddenly has Atlanta with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, and the defense is the main culprit. The Hawks allowed the Cavaliers to shoot 55.8 percent from the field on Tuesday and are getting lit up at 47.5 percent on the season, making them 28th in the NBA in field-goal percentage defense. The bright spot was the play of small forward Taurean Prince, who scored a team-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting and is 25-of-38 from the floor over the last four contests.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Hawks rookie PF John Collins (shoulder) sat out the last six games and is day-to-day.

2. Tolliver left Tuesday's loss with a broken nose and is day-to-day.

3. Detroit beat Atlanta 111-104 at home on Nov. 10 behind 16 points and 20 rebounds from center Andre Drummond.

PREDICTION: Pistons 106, Hawks 101