Pistons finally face bad team

Essentials

• Teams: Detroit Pistons at Milwaukee Bucks
• Date: Jan. 13, 2012
• Time: 8 p.m.
• Television: Fox Sports Detroit Plus

Records

• Pistons: 2-8
• Bucks: 3-6

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Brandon Knight
• Ben Gordon
• Tayshaun Prince
• Jonas Jerebko
• Greg Monroe

Bucks:

• Brand Jennings
• Stephen Jackson
• Carlos Delfino
• Ersan Ilyasova
• Andrew Bogut

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +8

Over/under: 177.5

Score: Bucks win, 92.75-84.75

Three things to watch

1. The Pistons may or may not be at full strength

The Pistons have been waiting to get Rodney Stuckey and, I guess, Charlie Villanueva back in the lineup. Their status remains questionable for tonight, per Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News:

Stuckey and CV are again game-time decisions tonight. L Frank was talking with both after shootaround

2. Can Greg Monroe get some more shots?

I’ll let MFMP from Detroit Bad Boys handle this:

Ben Gordon, Will Bynum, Brandon Knight and Austin Daye are taking more shots per minute than Greg Monroe. Stop this, Larry Frank. Also, Greg, when you get the ball, I’d much prefer you pass it instead of taking a contested jumper. (which means I want to see the rest of you moving without the ball)

3. Jon Leuer will start for Milwaukee

The Pistons will get a look at a second round big man they could’ve drafted instead of Kyle Singler and a coach who doesn’t mind throwing his second round picks into the fray at the expense of veterans. From Ian Segovia of Bucksketball:

There’s been a bit of serendipity in Leuer’s rise to the starting spot today, but it’s been for the best as he is clearly the Bucks best offensive option at the four. And all that luck would have meant nothing had Leuer not performed well. He’s scoring 1.42 PPP(points per possession) in spot-up situations and 1 PPP in post-ups. He’s shooting 66.7 percent at the rim. Physically, he’s just a terrible man defender, but has been shown decent help defense. That’s to be expected from someone coming out of the Bo Ryan system.

Is he going to keep the starting job? Obviously, this depends all on Leuer. He already has Scott Skiles confidence as evidenced by the crunch time minutes Leuer got against the Spurs. Skiles is more than willing to play rookies as long as they get it and so far it looks like Leuer just gets it.

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