Odds: -103 / 1.97 on Pinnacle Sports OR -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

Detroit had a nice start of the Blake Griffin era and they thought they could keep winning by outscoring their opponents. The result of that was three losses with an average of 115 points per game allowed in the process. Even though they're now face a lowly team at home, there is a clear defensive sense of urgency for tonight:

"Including myself, we allowed our offensive play, our frustration of missing shots to really get away from our defense," Drummond said. "That's kind of what we anchor ourselves on. If we don't get stops on defense, obviously it's not going to translate to offense. Those effort plays that we haven't been making, loose balls on the ground and nobody's been diving for them. It's just a toughness thing. We've got to get back to playing tough and just playing winning basketball really is what it is."

The good news for Detroit's defense is that Atlanta will come to this game without their starting backcourt, as both Schroder and Bazemore will be out. So, the Pistons' defensive task for tonight will be easier than expected. On the other hand, Atlanta's defense is poor on the perimeter, but they are a very decent unit near the rim. Ilyasova is also out for tonight, but Atlanta has at least three capable defenders in Dedmon, Plumlee and Muscala, so they will use two bigs the whole game to handle Drummond and Blake, so we won't have a mismatch favoring Detroit's offense in here. Given all of these factors, I'll be taking the Under in here.