Last game versus Milwaukee this season…

Essentials

• Teams: Detroit Pistons (19-32) at Milwaukee Bucks (25-23)
• Date: February 9, 2013
• Time: 8:30 p.m.
• Television: FSD

What to look for

After defeating the San Antonio Spurs last night at home, the Detroit Pistons will try to win back-to-back games tonight when they take on a Milwaukee Bucks team that has lost four of its last five games.

The Pistons presently own the season series by virtue of defeating the Bucks two out of three times, but the last contest saw Milwaukee put a choke hold on Detroit in a 117-90 rout on January 29^th at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

In the last meeting between both teams, Detroit was simply annihilated defensively.

The Bucks scored 60 points in the paint (!) and also converted 11-of-23 shots from 3-point range.

Jim Boylan’s group is incredibly streaky.

They are an average long-range shooting team, but once the shots start going in, their opponents typically find themselves in trouble given that game plans usually revolve around forcing their players to take long 2-point shots.

The main offenders are Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis, both of which take a substantial amount of long 2-pointers and 3-point shots.

Jennings hoists up 3.7 shots from 16-to-23 feet (converting 35 percent of them) per Hoopdata and 5.6 shots from downtown (converting 37.2 percent of his 3s) while Ellis attempts 5.3 shots from 16-to-23 feet (converting 33 percent) and 3.5 shots from behind the arc (converting 24.1 percent).

Where things get tricky is when one of them gets going and starts to make shots. It usually forces the defense to run a defender at them, thus resulting in opening up driving lanes for either player who attack the rim or find teammates cutting to the basket or stationed for an open 3-point shot.

This has happened twice against the Pistons.

On December 30^th, Monta Ellis went on a tear in Detroit and scored 30 points and gave the Bucks a shot to win a game they ultimately lost. However, in the most recent matchup, Jennings’ 30 points helped open up the court for his teammates that connected on the majority of their shots, which resulted in a rout of the Pistons.

It may seem like an oversimplification, but if the Pistons can find a way to contain the Milwaukee backcourt, it should certainly give them fairly great odds of defeating the Bucks on the road tonight.

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