vs. 
Pistons Offensive Rating: 100.5 (27th)
Pistons Defensive Rating: 105.4 (13th)
Hawks Offensive Rating: 107.8 (13th)
Hawks Defensive Rating: 109.1 (23rd)
The Detroit Pistons are in Atlanta Friday night, where Stan Van Gundy’s bunch will try and snap a three-game losing streak to an Atlanta Hawks team that is coming off a putrid home loss to a horrid Los Angeles Lakers team Tuesday night.
The Pistons’ record may be 3-9, which is easy to scoff at, but when you look at what SVG has had to work with thus far, and how many games they’ve been in late, you can see this is a team that’s buying into the Diet Pepsi Aficionado’s defensive scheme, at the very least.
It’s still too early to call any games “must-wins”, but for the Hawks losing back-to-back games at home to the Lakers and Pistons are the types of losses that could end up costing the Hawks a playoff spot in April. If you can’t be bad teams at home, that’s never a good sign.
The Hawks’ problems mostly lie on the defensive end of the floor with the team really struggling to stop anybody. However, DeMarre Carroll, the defensive-glue guy who typically guards the opposing team’s best player, is available tonight.
The Pistons are a very good matchup for the Hawks, on paper at least, with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Josh Smith leading Detroit in FGA’s at a combined clip of 26 a night. (KCP is shooting 36.7 percent from the floor, while Smith is shooting 20 percent from 3-point land.)
The line for the game tonight favors the Hawks at 6.5, which seems about right with how the Pistons hang around, but ultimately fall by a couple of baskets.
Prediction: Hawks win and cover.
