Game Preview: Detroit Pistons will try to contain Kevin Durant in home opener against Oklahoma City Thunder

We had quite a few people commenting on random posts during Wednesday’s game against the Nets, so we’ll try and have these game preview posts from now on during the season. They can serve as your game threads to make commentary throughout each game. If you like them, we’ll keep doing them.

Game info: Oklahoma City Thunder (1-0) at Detroit Pistons (0-1), 8 p.m. on Fox Sports Detroit

Probable starters: DET – Rodney Stuckey, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Austin Daye, Ben Wallace; OKC – Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefalosha, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic

Three things to watch:

1. Durant scores well against everyone, and the Pistons will probably be no different, but they actually do have the types of wing players who can bother him. Durant is longer than virtually every wing in the league, but Prince, Daye and even Hamilton are tall enough to at least get a hand up in his face. If they can turn him into a volume scorer, they’ll have a chance to win. Durant was 8-for-18 and 7-for-17 in two games vs. the Pistons last season.

2. Daye matches up much better against the Thunder. I’d expect him to get more minutes tonight, since they start Jeff Green at power forward. The Thunder don’t boast what anyone would call a rugged front line, so it should be easier for Daye to get comfortable in this game.

3. Guy to watch: Serge Ibaka. The Pistons had major problems with two kinds of big men last season, great post-up players like Brook Lopez, who torched them in the first game, and active athletic bigs who love to get out and run. Ibaka is that second type of big. If things haven’t change much since last year, expect a big night from Ibaka.

Pregame reading:

• For info on OKC, check out Daily Thunder, one of the best team blogs in the NBA
• Welcome to Twitter, Keith Langlois
• Chris Iott suggests Greg Monroe sitting out had more to do with the matchup with Brook Lopez than being in John Kuester being displeased with his motor, as Vince Ellis suggested
• Terry Foster talks with Ben Wallace about leaving a legacy

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