{"id":489206,"date":"2025-12-22T17:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/489206\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T17:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:40:18","slug":"pistons-vs-trailblazers-preview-time-for-the-west-coast-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/489206\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons vs Trailblazers preview: Time for the West Coast road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The five-game West Coast trip is here. The Portland Trailblazers are first on the clock. The Detroit Pistons have no problem walking into anybody\u2019s crib and kicking their feet up. The Pistons are a conference-best 9-4 on the road. They look to carry the momentum from a dominant Charlotte Hornets performance into Portland.<\/p>\n

The Blazers and Hornets are in similar positions, but ultimately are different teams. Both squads want to make the play-in at least, but there is a little more juice in Portland. We know Deni Avdija is playing at an All-Star level and gets the whistle to match (14-15 FT on 12\/5). He\u2019s a tough cover, but you don\u2019t sweat anybody when you\u2019re a top-2 defense.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re closing in on Christmas Day, and Detroit remains top dog out East and one of the most balanced teams overall. They could potentially get two All-Stars for the first time since the Goin to Work era. What a time.<\/p>\n

Where: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon<\/p>\n

Watch: Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit<\/p>\n

I hammer home about the Pistons defense so much because it\u2019s really a special group. The combination of elite on-ball defenders and rim protection is a championship formula. They have the No. 1 half-court defense per Cleaning the Glass. That bodes well for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Thunder get a lot of pub for their defensive personnel, but Detroit has a slew of greats, too. The Thunder have eight players with a Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus<\/a> of 1.0 or better. That\u2019s super elite, but Detroit is in the ballpark.<\/p>\n

Ausar Thompson: +3.0 (98th %tile)<\/p>\n

Javonte Green: +1.8 (94th)<\/p>\n

Cade Cunnigham: +1.3 (89th)<\/p>\n

Isaiah Stewart: +1.3 (88th)<\/p>\n

Any stat that has Stew this low as a defender isn\u2019t the end-all be-all (no stat is actually), but this paints a clear picture illustrating Detroit\u2019s elite individual defenders. Duren has grown a ton as a team defender, and Cade has too, while showing on-ball stopper chops.<\/p>\n

The rest of the players on that list are matchup nightmares for offensive weapons. Who on earth would be excited that Ausar is hounding them 94 feet?<\/p>\n

These are the type of guys Avdija will need to go through to reach his career-high averages across the board. He got his in the earlier Pistons matchup, but there was a lot of Shaedon Sharpe and Jerami Grant down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Sharpe has the potential to be an explosive scorer. His pogo stick bounce pops every game, and he\u2019s an elite finisher at the rim. He has to figure out the jumpshot stuff, but he\u2019s shooting 55% from 3 on 5.4 attempts over the last seven games. He\u2019ll be high on the scouting report tonight.<\/p>\n

The Blazers have juice, but they don\u2019t have *the guys* on the floor tonight. The last time the Pistons had two or more All-Stars was 2008. Big Shot, Rip, and Sheed represented Detroit in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren could both make it this year. Cade is a lock. Duren\u2019s quick start has slowed down a bit, but coaches value winning. The Pistons did their work early and still sit atop the East. Cade is an MVP-level player, but Duren is super impactful himself.<\/p>\n

The counting stats are there (18\/11 double-double), the advanced stats love him (+3.5 EPM), and wins have always mattered. The format changed again, so we\u2019ll see if that helps or hurts Duren, but a 22-6 team has a case for two deserving All-Stars.<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons (22-6): Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren<\/p>\n

Portland Trailblazers (12-16): Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, Jerami Grant (questionable), Donovan Clingan<\/p>\n

Where is Cade on your MVP ballot today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The five-game West Coast trip is here. The Portland Trailblazers are first on the clock. The Detroit Pistons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,52275,3860,6,297,53269],"class_list":{"0":"post-489206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroit-pistons-game-day","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-pistons","15":"tag-pistons-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115764450169026603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}