The NBA Playoffs continue today and among the teams in action is the one who might have the best shot to dethrone the Golden State Warriors. The Milwaukee Bucks had the best record in the NBA this season at 60-22 but still aren’t getting much respect. As good as the Bucks have been this season the NBA futures betting odds have the Warriors priced at -225 to win the title with the Bucks at +600. Golden State will be a handful if they continue to play as well as they did in Game One but Milwaukee has a perfect matchup to start the playoffs on a positive note hosting the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pistons did everything they could to avoid making the playoffs losing 7 of their last 11 games. They caught a very fortuitous break from the schedule as they found themselves having to ‘win to get in’ with one game remaining–and their opponents were the lowly New York Knicks who quit caring about their performance weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Charlotte Hornets had to face a tough Orlando Magic team. Detroit’s defensive play is pretty solid and they finished the regular season ranked #7 in team defense allowing 107.3 PPG. That’s actually 2 points per game better than the Bucks but even with that solid defensive showing the Pistons had a -0.3 per game scoring deficit. They Bucks led the NBA in scoring putting up 118.1 PPG and also had the best average differential in the league at +8.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offensively, Detroit lives and dies with Blake Griffin’s performance and he’s been struggling with a knee injury for the past couple of weeks. He’ll likely try to go here (he’s listed as ‘Probable’) but that will just make things easier for the Bucks’ defenders–most likely the monstrous and talented Giannis Antetokounmpo. There’s no guarantee that Griffin’s knee will hold out and should he miss any time there’s no way that the Pistons can replace his 24.5 PPG scoring. Griffin has become better at passing out of double teams as he’s matured but the fact that he’s Detroit’s assist leader (5.5 per game) doesn’t bode well either. The Pistons were #25 in team assists per game this season. Milwaukee will likely kill them on the boards–the Bucks were the best rebounding team in the NBA during the campaign while Detroit was #18. A potential Griffin absence wouldn’t hurt here quite as badly since Andre Drummond (15.6) carried most of the rebounding load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milwaukee had little trouble with Detroit during the regular season. The teams played four times with the Bucks going 4-0 SU\/3-0-1 ATS. The Pistons gave them a tough battle at home on December 17 but Milwaukee prevailed 107-104. That game notwithstanding, every Milwaukee win over Detroit this year was by double digit margins of 10, 24 and 23 points. The two games at home for Milwaukee were the 24 and 23 point routs. Pistons flopped into the postseason as a betting proposition going 1-5 ATS overall in their last 7 games as well as 1-5 SU in their last 6 road games. They’ve covered only 1 of the last 6 meetings against the Bucks and are on a 3-7-1 ATS run at Milwaukee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n