Pistons vs. Thunder preview: Young teams living up to their potential

The Pistons and Thunder are both very young. They are also both playing really well in the early parts of the season. Yes, it has only been 3 games, but it hasn’t been luck that they both enter this game with a 2-1 record.

The Thunder are coming off a blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets last night, but had 2 impressive wins over the Cavaliers and Bulls before that. For the Pistons, they are coming off a win in their home opener against the Bulls and their only loss should have been an opening night win over the Heat.

Although Oklahoma City has a treasure trove of assets unlike the Pistons, both of these teams are in a similar spot being a few years into their respective rebuilds and finally starting to show the fruits of their labor.

Game Vitals

Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
When: Monday, October 30 at 8 pm EST
Watch: Bally Sports Detroit
Odds: Pistons (+5.5)

Analysis

Both these teams already squared off twice in the preseason with the Pistons winning both matchups, so why not do it again where the games actually count?

The Pistons have hung their hat on defense this season, and so have the Thunder, although last night’s game against the Nuggets is an exception. The Pistons have held their opponents under 104 points in every game this season and the Thunder held their first 2 opponents under 105 points before last night’s clunker against Denver.

Both teams are led by an exciting guard in Cade Cunningham and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, respectively, although the Pistons hope is that Cade becomes as good as Shai has been since the start of last season. The Thunder’s starting lineup isn’t quite as young as the Pistons, as they have the 24 year old Lu Dort and the 25 year old SGA, but outside of those 2 everybody in their starting lineup is 22 or younger just like the Pistons.

That’s pretty much where the comparisons stop, as the Thunder have legitimate expectations this season after flirting with the play-in tournament last season where the Pistons are off to a fun start after finishing last season with the worst record in the NBA.

It will be interesting to see how Chet Homgren handles Jalen Duren, as Duren has been using his imposing size to bully opposing big men this season at the ripe old age of 19. Holmgren is a great shot blocker, but does struggle a bit with bigger players given his slender frame. He can also force Duren out of the paint and onto the perimeter, which will help open up the paint a bit, which has been a tough place to operate for opposing teams with Duren and Stewart patrolling it.

Although the Pistons starting lineup leaves a bit to be desired offensively, they have been able to set the tone early defensively before veteran players like Alec Burks come off the bench and bring the offensive punch. The Thunder don’t have the same veteran offensive punch off the bench, but they do have a few more of their young players playing well off the bench like 1st round pick Cason Wallace and the streaky long range shooter, Isaiah Joe.

I would suspect that Ausar Thompson will draw the SGA matchup in this game, as his defense down the stretch on Zach LaVine during his 51 points outburst on Saturday is what ultimately let the Pistons pull away. It took him 3 quarters to figure out what to do, but once he did he was able to take over the game with his defense.

Jalen Williams and Jaden Ivey were both impressive as rookies and got better as the season went on and both players have settled into roles this season. For Williams, he is still a starter, but with Chet Homgren back from injury and SGA doing SGA things, he hasn’t taken on as much of a scoring load for the Thunder early on this season. For Ivey, he is now coming off the bench and still figuring out how to impact that game while doing so.

This should be a fun one at the same time the Detroit Lions take on the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football. Nobody cares about the Lions, right?