Playoffs locked up. Just happened. Like a few minutes ago. Just now! All locked up!

[SuperBad]

I just went through the rest of the schedule for the pistons, bucks, and Pacers. I think the pacers will finish one game ahead of both Detroit and Milwaukee and our placing between them and us will come down to those last two games.

[bstein14]

I just went through the rest of the schedule for the pistons, bucks, and Pacers. I think the pacers will finish one game ahead of both Detroit and Milwaukee and our placing between them and us will come down to those last two games.

It'll almost certainly come down to the last week for all three teams.

Indy finishes with Cleveland, Orlando, Cleveland and its very possible Cleveland is resting players that entire last week so Indy might get lucky down the stretch facing Cleveland twice when they have nothing to play for.

I also think, looking at the schedule, Indy has a slight advantage with who they have remaining but they are also at Milwaukee on a B2B and then in Minny on Monday so I think its very possible they could end up losing two of their next three.

We only have two sets of B2B games remaining this season and Indy has four sets remaining.

[LaSheed]

Oof free game to the Bucks. Hurts but it's the NBA

[gusman]

Taking my son to his first game and Chet holgrem is not playing because of rest. This is part of the reason I quit watching the nba. Just play restricted minutes.

[blog_pistons]

Taking my son to his first game and Chet holgrem is not playing because of rest. This is part of the reason I quit watching the nba. Just play restricted minutes.

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

[Canadafan]

Taking my son to his first game and Chet holgrem is not playing because of rest. This is part of the reason I quit watching the nba. Just play restricted minutes.

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

Nahhhh, I hate that idea. Keep 82.
Stretch the season out somehow longer. Maybe ditch the all star game(unlikely due to money maker) or trim down or ditch the preseason.
Figure out how to do less b2b's or if there are b2b have the same 2 damn teams play each other so it's fair and less travel. I dunno. 2 games in Detroit in a row vs Bucks and then a later date do 2 games in Milwaukee.
Missing a game for 'rest' should be illegal. Thays nuts

The players are so spoiled and soft that even if they cut the season down to 60, guys would still miss time

[bstein14]

Taking my son to his first game and Chet holgrem is not playing because of rest. This is part of the reason I quit watching the nba. Just play restricted minutes.

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

Nahhhh, I hate that idea. Keep 82.
Stretch the season out somehow longer. Maybe ditch the all star game(unlikely due to money maker) or trim down or ditch the preseason.
Figure out how to do less b2b's or if there are b2b have the same 2 damn teams play each other so it's fair and less travel. I dunno. 2 games in Detroit in a row vs Bucks and then a later date do 2 games in Milwaukee.
Missing a game for 'rest' should be illegal. Thays nuts

The players are so spoiled and soft that even if they cut the season down to 60, guys would still miss time

I think the easiest thing to do as the NBA is more back-to-backs without travel. The travel part is the hardest thing to deal with when you don't have a day in between games.... the league needs to stop the back-to-backs with travel and cut those out almost entirely.

Back-to-back in LA is fine you have the Clippers and Lakers with arenas 20 minutes apart. Back-to-back games with Brooklyn and NY is fine as their arenas are just five miles apart. Outside of that only back-to-back games should be ones where both teams stay and play back-to-back games together. Schedule us against the Hornets for back-to-back nights in Charlotte so we don't have to travel in between. Cut back massively on travel over the court of the season.

[Canadafan]

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

I think the easiest thing to do as the NBA is more back-to-backs without travel. The travel part is the hardest thing to deal with when you don't have a day in between games.... the league needs to stop the back-to-backs with travel and cut those out almost entirely.

Back-to-back in LA is fine you have the Clippers and Lakers with arenas 20 minutes apart. Back-to-back games with Brooklyn and NY is fine as their arenas are just five miles apart. Outside of that only back-to-back games should be ones where both teams stay and play back-to-back games together. Schedule us against the Hornets for back-to-back nights in Charlotte so we don't have to travel in between. Cut back massively on travel over the court of the season.

Right? There must be a reason they don't do this already. Seems too obvious

[Kalamazoo317]

They should get rid of back to backs in general, whether they have to cut down the games in a season or extend the season to do that.

[BadMofoPimp]

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

Nahhhh, I hate that idea. Keep 82.
Stretch the season out somehow longer. Maybe ditch the all star game(unlikely due to money maker) or trim down or ditch the preseason.
Figure out how to do less b2b's or if there are b2b have the same 2 damn teams play each other so it's fair and less travel. I dunno. 2 games in Detroit in a row vs Bucks and then a later date do 2 games in Milwaukee.
Missing a game for 'rest' should be illegal. Thays nuts

The players are so spoiled and soft that even if they cut the season down to 60, guys would still miss time

I think the easiest thing to do as the NBA is more back-to-backs without travel. The travel part is the hardest thing to deal with when you don't have a day in between games.... the league needs to stop the back-to-backs with travel and cut those out almost entirely.

Back-to-back in LA is fine you have the Clippers and Lakers with arenas 20 minutes apart. Back-to-back games with Brooklyn and NY is fine as their arenas are just five miles apart. Outside of that only back-to-back games should be ones where both teams stay and play back-to-back games together. Schedule us against the Hornets for back-to-back nights in Charlotte so we don't have to travel in between. Cut back massively on travel over the court of the season.

I agree with Canadafan. Having 60 games with 3 days in between most games would make it so that the players would have to compete harder to win with better game planning and rest.

[NYPiston]

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

The schedule was 82 games back in the 80s, 90s and 00s when players would play just about every game. Load management, for some reason, has become a thing in the last decade and it cheats fans who pay ridiculous ticket prices out of seeing great players play. It's a slap in the face to the people who pay their salaries.

[blog_pistons]

The truth is that in almost every sport, there's always a day off after a game. Playing fewer games means everyone is more important for postseason positioning, eliminating a high risk of injury. I don't know, just my opinion. Back-to-backs shouldn't exist. I want quality content, not quantity.

[Kalamazoo317]

Updated OKC injury report vs Detroit:

Jalen Williams (hip) is out.
Chet Holmgren (rest) is out.
Aaron Wiggins (illness) is questionable.

Alex Caruso is available.

There are too many regular-season games. I think 60 would be more than enough.

The schedule was 82 games back in the 80s, 90s and 00s when players would play just about every game. Load management, for some reason, has become a thing in the last decade and it cheats fans who pay ridiculous ticket prices out of seeing great players play. It's a slap in the face to the people who pay their salaries.

And players realized that the way they did things in the 80s, 90s, and 00s largely led to shorter careers overall. So that's your reason. Players want to extend their careers.

[Invictus88]

Cade wasn't ejected because of an SGA pushoff.

He was pissed because the refs tried fishing for a flagrant against Stew who wasn't involved with the player who fell. When nothing was found the ref then gave the singular OKC player who was fouled separately and standing at the line the ball to start shooting free throws; before any Piston had a chance to line up. Beasley immediately slapped the ball out of the shooter's hands to buy time. Cade then walked up and asked the ref "WTF are you doing?". The ref didn't like being called out for being a moron. Then in the ensuing chaos that followed Cade was questioning why he was T'd and got another.

Cade is partially at fault for the second one but overall the ref was an idiot. SGA had nothing to do with it.

[zeebneeb]

Cade wasn't ejected because of an SGA pushoff.

He was pissed because the refs tried fishing for a flagrant against Stew who wasn't involved with the player who fell. When nothing was found the ref then gave the singular OKC player who was fouled separately and standing at the line the ball to start shooting free throws; before any Piston had a chance to line up. Beasley immediately slapped the ball out of the shooter's hands to buy time. Cade then walked up and asked the ref "WTF are you doing?". The ref didn't like being called out for being a moron. Then in the ensuing chaos that followed Cade was questioning why he was T'd and got another.

Cade is partially at fault for the second one but overall the ref was an idiot. SGA had nothing to do with it.

Wait, you thought I was being serious with the headline?

I thought it was a pretty obvious jab at SGA. *shrug*

[Invictus88]

Cade wasn't ejected because of an SGA pushoff.

He was pissed because the refs tried fishing for a flagrant against Stew who wasn't involved with the player who fell. When nothing was found the ref then gave the singular OKC player who was fouled separately and standing at the line the ball to start shooting free throws; before any Piston had a chance to line up. Beasley immediately slapped the ball out of the shooter's hands to buy time. Cade then walked up and asked the ref "WTF are you doing?". The ref didn't like being called out for being a moron. Then in the ensuing chaos that followed Cade was questioning why he was T'd and got another.

Cade is partially at fault for the second one but overall the ref was an idiot. SGA had nothing to do with it.

Wait, you thought I was being serious with the headline?

I thought it was a pretty obvious jab at SGA. *shrug*

Sorry. My sarcasm meter fell short here. I was just listening to folks downplaying the Pistons frustration and misattibuting the root cause and then saw your title.

[zeebneeb]

I was just going over the Pistons losses, and the Pistons have lost 11 games, by 5 points or less this season.(including one OT loss by 7)

If the Pistons just win 5 of those games, the team would be 42-26, nipping at New yorks heels for the 3rd seed. 7 points or less losses, is an additional 4 games.

The Pistons are really, really close to being a top seed in the Eastern conference. One decent upgrade, hell it could just be Ivey for a full season, and the team is winning well over 50 games.

Now throw in an upgrade (a sizeable one) at the 4, and hoo boy.

[Kalamazoo317]

Well any “upgrade” also throws off chemistry and reconfigures the team so it’s never going to be purely additive. Might it be better overall? Sure. But you can’t count on the floor being the same.

[tmorgan]

I was just going over the Pistons losses, and the Pistons have lost 11 games, by 5 points or less this season.(including one OT loss by 7)

If the Pistons just win 5 of those games, the team would be 42-26, nipping at New yorks heels for the 3rd seed. 7 points or less losses, is an additional 4 games.

The Pistons are really, really close to being a top seed in the Eastern conference. One decent upgrade, hell it could just be Ivey for a full season, and the team is winning well over 50 games.

Now throw in an upgrade (a sizeable one) at the 4, and hoo boy.

I mean, I love the enthusiasm, zeeb, but you’re doing some crazy fiddling here. How many games have we won by 5 or less? It works both ways.

The current Pistons are a solid team. Like playoffs no play-in solid. But we’re not a threat to any of the actual contenders in any way, shape or form. Oh, but I will mention — I think New York isn’t an actual contender, and we’re going to give them trouble.

[jars]

Nahhhh, I hate that idea. Keep 82.
Stretch the season out somehow longer. Maybe ditch the all star game(unlikely due to money maker) or trim down or ditch the preseason.
Figure out how to do less b2b's or if there are b2b have the same 2 damn teams play each other so it's fair and less travel. I dunno. 2 games in Detroit in a row vs Bucks and then a later date do 2 games in Milwaukee.
Missing a game for 'rest' should be illegal. Thays nuts

The players are so spoiled and soft that even if they cut the season down to 60, guys would still miss time

I think the easiest thing to do as the NBA is more back-to-backs without travel. The travel part is the hardest thing to deal with when you don't have a day in between games.... the league needs to stop the back-to-backs with travel and cut those out almost entirely.

Back-to-back in LA is fine you have the Clippers and Lakers with arenas 20 minutes apart. Back-to-back games with Brooklyn and NY is fine as their arenas are just five miles apart. Outside of that only back-to-back games should be ones where both teams stay and play back-to-back games together. Schedule us against the Hornets for back-to-back nights in Charlotte so we don't have to travel in between. Cut back massively on travel over the court of the season.

I agree with Canadafan. Having 60 games with 3 days in between most games would make it so that the players would have to compete harder to win with better game planning and rest.

Bill Simmons was talking about this in his most recent podcast. He was making the argument that when the new teams enter the NBA in a few years the season should start at the beginning of December to avoid football, have the NBA cup just after the superbowl, and cut about 10-12 games. It would mean the finals would be in July, but his argument is that the only reason it wasn't in July in the first place was to avoid baseball which is irrelevant now.