Pistons vs. Cavs preview: JB Bickerstaff faces an old team for the first time

The NBA schedule definitely has some interesting quirks. Sometimes you don't play teams in your division for months, and sometimes you start your season with your first two games against division rivals, and one of them pits your current head coach against his former team.

After a tough opening night loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Detroit Pistons have a chance to redeem themselves and offer their coach some redemption. The Pistons were in control of the game in the first three quarters against the Pacers, but as we saw so many times last season, this team simply cannot close out games against better teams.

There were some encouraging signs, and hopefully the Pistons can build on those encouraging signs against a Cavaliers team that is coming off a blowout win over the Toronto Raptors.

Game Vitalities

When: Friday, October 25th at 7:30pm EST
Where: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, OH
Regard: Fanduell Sports Network Detroit (will take some getting used to)
Opportunities: Piston +10.5

analysis

The Pistons and Cavs competed in the preseason, with the Pistons coming out on top with a stunning win. However, this is the regular season, which is a completely different animal.

Both teams had an off day after opening night, but the Cavaliers cruised to an easy 30-point win while the Pistons had to fight to the end before ultimately falling to the Pacers. Combine that with the fact that the Cavaliers were already the more talented team, and you have the recipe for a tough game.

I've already touched on JB Bickerstaff's Revenge above, so I won't focus too much on that. However, hopefully it can provide some extra motivation for a Pistons team that needs all the motivation it can get with its tough games early in the season.

The Cavaliers return with nearly the same roster as last season, where they won their first-round series against the Orlando Magic before falling to the Boston Celtics in five games. They are led by their two-man backcourt, which includes the undersized but talented Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. To combat the disparity in the size of the backcourt, they have an elite defensive frontcourt of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Mobley and Allen aren't slackers on offense either, just not as dynamic scorers as Garland and Mitchell.

The hope is that the Pistons can utilize Mitchell and Garland defensively with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey to stay in the game. Both players played well on opening night but failed to make the necessary shots down the stretch, which was a big reason for the fourth quarter collapse. As difficult as it is to rely on a few players under the age of 23 for offense in the fourth quarter, the expectation is that these two will be the most dynamic offensive players on the team this season.

The Pistons showed a lot defensively in the first half on opening night against the Pacers, but their second half defense left a lot to be desired. The Pistons missed a lot of shots down the stretch in this game, but the Pacers were able to get back into the game because the Pistons failed to protect shooters at the rim and didn't offer much resistance at the rim.

Luckily for the Pistons, Allen and Mobley aren't the same offensive greats as Myles Turner and Pascal Siakam, so hopefully they can focus their defense more on stopping Mitchell and Garland.

Despite the second half struggles, the defense was better than last season and they held the potent Pacers offense to just 115 points, but the bar for this team's defense needs to be set higher than just being better than last year .

This will be a tough game and I wouldn't bet on the Pistons winning. But given the rough patch at the start of the season, they'll need to pull off an unexpected win at some point if they want to prevent their season from sinking before the season even begins. Why not against JB Bickerstaff's old team?

Planned lineups

Detroit Pistons (0-1)

Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Tim Hardaway Jr., Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Cleveland Cavaliers (1-0)

Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Question of the day

What is your biggest hot take heading into the season regarding the Pistons or any other NBA team?