Welcome, friends to the NBA\u2019s game of the year. Two of the most exciting young franchises in the NBA, both either first or second in their respective conferences, and both led by two young, superstar players who look like they could help define the NBA for the next decade-plus.<\/p>\n
In one corner, you have the East-leading Detroit Pistons led by Cade Cunningham, one of the most versatile offensive hubs in the NBA. He does a lot of traditional things you expect from a lead guard \u2014 run the offense, dictate the pace, get others involved, score at all three levels, play hard on defense. He just does all of those things at a high level as a total package you want to build your team around. In the other corner, you have a very untraditional superstar in the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 Victor Wembanyama. He is a 7-foot-4 dynamo on both ends of the floor with a face-up game, ball-handling skills more akin to a guard, and one of the most feared defenders of the paint in the NBA. He\u2019s redefining what is possible on the court on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n
But these two teams excel for reasons beyond their respective star players. Detroit is able to impose its will on teams behind total team defense, hustle, and grit. The Spurs play an excellent brand of defense as well, but it\u2019s a more contained, disciplined variety. They don\u2019t impose their will; they don\u2019t give you anything to work with and are happy to let you settle for a bad shot. No team gives up a lower ratio of free throws than the Spurs on a nightly basis, and the San Antonio defense is top-four in both defending twos and defending threes.<\/p>\n
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Watch: Peacock; FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons -1.5<\/p>\n
Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren<\/p>\n
San Antonio Spurs (40-16)<\/p>\n
De\u2019Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Victor Wembanyama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome, friends to the NBA\u2019s game of the year. Two of the most exciting young franchises in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,63977,52275,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-620924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit-pistons-discussion","10":"tag-detroit-pistons-game-day","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-sanantoniospurs","16":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116123000232331421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620924","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=620924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}