Wayne Ellington is sitting out tonight on the first night of a back-to-back. I’d say that the Pistons will miss his 3-point shooting, but the truth is, Ellington hasn’t been shooting well at all lately, and the rest is probably much needed and appreciated. Ellington has made just 27% of his 3s in the past 10 games, and if he’s not hitting 3s, he’s not doing much of anything.
With Saddiq Bey already in the starting lineup with Jerami Grant permanently shifted down to power forward, it’ll be interesting to see how Dwane Casey changes up the rotation. He could insert the chaos agent known as Josh Jackson or toss in Svi Mykhailiuk, who is hoping to get his own 3-point stroke going again. He could do something crazy like start Sekou Doumbouya at power forward and put Grant back at small forward. That’s a little too crazy, probably. No matter what, it’ll make for an interesting rotation with more minutes than the youngster can handle.
Just as interesting as who starts is who finishes, especially at point guard between Dennis Smith Jr and Saben Lee.
Game Vitals
When: 7 p.m. EST
Where: Amway Center, Orlando, Florida
Watch: Fox Sports Detroit
Odds: Pistons +3.5
Projected Lineups
Detroit Pistons (8-22)
Dennis Smith Jr, Svi Mykhailiuk, Saddiq Bey, Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee
Orlando Magic (13-18)
Michael Carter-Williams, Evan Fournier, Al-Farouq Aminu, James Ennis, Nikola Vucevic