Unfortunately, there will be no battle for the Most Improved Player award tonight in Detroit, as while Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham will play, Clippers shooting guard Norman Powell was ruled out for his third straight game with left patellar tendinopathy. In addition, LA’s star power forward, Kawhi Leonard, will also miss his second straight contest with foot soreness.
It’s expected to be a pretty close game, even with Powell and Leonard both sidelined. On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Pistons are 1.5-point favorites, a line that moved by 4.5 points in their favor when the Clippers duo was ruled out.
New acquisition Bogdan Bogdanović has started to find his groove in LA over the last two games with Powell sidelined, and I like him more than Kris Dunn tonight, even if the latter.
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SG Bogdan Bogdanović, LA Clippers at Detroit Pistons, $4,900
While the Atlanta Hawks’ decision to blow it up at the deadline and trade away De’Andre Hunter was somewhat inexplicable — the San Antonio Spurs have their unprotected first round pick this season, as a reminder — it wasn’t entirely unexpected that Bogdanović was traded. The Serbian national team captain has had a down year in the eighth season of his NBA career, averaging a career-low 10.0 points per game and shooting just 30.2% from beyond the arc, so the Clippers were able to buy low for him, acquiring his services for Terance Mann and Bones Hyland, two rarely-used reserves.
Bogdanović has recorded two consecutive double-digit scoring performances in LA’s last two games, scoring 15 points and adding five assists (30.5 FPTS) last Thursday in Milwaukee before scoring 11 points (17.75 FPTS) last night in Indiana. He shot just four-for-13 last night and one-for-eight from beyond the arc, so if the veteran shoots closer to his career averages (43.5% from the field, 38.0% from deep), he should put up better stats tonight.
The Pistons are, in theory, an extremely difficult positional matchup, allowing the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing shooting guards. While they’ve had merely the 12th-best defense on an efficiency basis, they’ve mostly been beaten by opposing forwards. Still, Detroit’s top two shooting guards — Tim Hardaway Jr. ($3,900) and Malik Beasley ($5,400) — have both allowed opponents to shoot better than usual when they’re the nearest defender, so they’re far from elite either. Plus, Bogdanović has also played plenty of minutes at the small forward and power forward positions as a Clipper, so he should be primed to attack the Pistons’ weaknesses, especially with Leonard out and LA playing small.
