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The Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder will square off tomorrow night at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. This showdown features an Oklahoma City team that owns the top seed in the West. The Pistons have surprised this season and currently sit fifth in the Eastern Conference after multiple campaigns at the bottom of the East.
Let’s dive into this matchup while recapping both teams’ seasons and making a game pick for tomorrow night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the best teams in the entire NBA and, without a doubt, the best team in the Western Conference. They feature the clear odds-on favorite for league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who leads the NBA in points per game (32.8), is fifth in steals per game (1.7) and 13th in assists per game (6.0). He’s been the driving force of a team looking to capture an NBA Championship.
Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t doing this alone, by the way. He has Jalen Williams, who averages 21.2 points per game, plus 5.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention defensive stalwart Luguentz Dort, who should get votes for the NBA’s All-Defensive team.
The Thunder are a whopping 28-1 against the East this season, which is a league record against the opposing conference. Oklahoma City currently rides a 10-game winning streak, and this season puts them in some rarefied air amongst some of the NBA’s best teams.
To say the Detroit Pistons’ ascension has been a surprise has been an understatement. Detroit had just two seasons with 40 or more wins in their last 15 campaigns, dating back to 2010. They have only made the playoffs twice in that span, having been swept in both instances. Fast forward to this season, and the Pistons are fifth in the East after two straight seasons with the NBA’s worst record.
Sparking this turnaround is All-Star Cade Cunningham, who has been the torchbearer for a young Pistons team. Averaging 25.7 points, 9.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds per game, Cunningham has cemented himself as the franchise player for Detroit.
Without Cunningham, the Pistons are proving that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With numerous under-25 players and contributors like Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Ron Holland, plus the guiding veterans Dennis Schroeder, Tim Hardaway Jr., Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley, these Pistons could be building on long-term success in short order.
With the upcoming contest between the Pistons and Thunder, it will come down to who is available for the Pistons. Cade Cunningham has been nursing a calf injury and may miss a fourth straight game for Detroit. Tobias Harris also missed the last two games with tendinitis in his Achilles tendon. It didn’t matter against the Cavaliers on Friday, where the Pistons won by 21 points without his services. No matter how you slice it, not having Cunningham and Harris is a huge blow to Detroit.
Meanwhile, the Thunder keep chugging as it’s been hard for any team to stop this train. Oklahoma City is one of the best offensive teams in the league with top-10 marks in points scored, field goal percentage, three-point percentage and free throw percentage.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should find plenty of offense in this game, but the way SGA has set up his teammates is something to watch for. He has averaged 7.2 assists in March, which is the best of any month this season and has bested that average in five of his last seven games.
Tonight’s game isn’t targeting SGA’s scoring but his distribution of the basketball. Our Pistons vs Thunder NBA pick is on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to dish out more than 7.5 assists.
Luke Lindholm is an avid basketball, baseball, football, hockey and soccer fan who specializes in writing promotional content for multiple sportsbooks and prediction-based articles across a variety of sports. His work has been featured on prominent websites including Sports Illustrated, Pickswise, Men’s Journal, TheStreet, Athlon Sports and more. He started as a college football handicapper for Pickswise in 2016 and is a current member of the Pickswise NFL handicapping team.