Pistons Announce The Final Playing Status For Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, and Tobias Harris For Game vs Hawks
The two hottest teams in the Eastern Conference are going to go head-to-head tonight in Atlanta.
The Hawks, winners of five in a row, will face the Detroit Pistons, winners of 10 straight, tonight in State Farm Arena, and it is going to be quite an interesting test for two teams who were considered darkhorses in the Eastern Conference heading into the season.
Ahead of tonight’s game, Detroit had listed Cade Cunningham, Tobias Harris, and Ausar Thompson as questionable for tonight’s game and they just announced their playing status for tonight.
Cunningham and Thompson are available to play, while Harris is going to miss this game
By the numbers
Our own Rohan Raman looked into the Hawks’ advanced numbers and how they stack up at this point in the season:
“The fourth quarter (Against Phoenix) made up for a rough offensive performance through the end of the second quarter and the third quarter. Atlanta is 17th in points, 9th in FG%, 14th in 3P%, 18th in FT%, 23rd in rebounds (26th in OREB), 1st in assists and 15th in turnovers per game. They’re 18th in offensive rating on the year and seem entrenched somewhere between the 10th to 15th spot league wide at their peak without Young.
Atlanta’s defense wasn’t quite as impressive against Phoenix, but they did enough in the fourth quarter to get the win. On a per-game basis, Atlanta ranks 7th in points allowed, 8th in FG% allowed, 6th in 3P% allowed, 25th in rebounds allowed, 2nd in steals and 9th in blocks. They’re 6th in defensive rating on the year and for the first time in the Trae Young era, he might have a truly elite defense to hide his deficiencies on that end.
The Pistons aren’t a stellar offense, but they do a good job of complementing their strong defense by battling for rebounds and getting out in transition. It obviously starts with Cunningham, but they’re 12th in points, 12th in FG%, 20th in 3P%, 28th in FT%, 5th in rebounds (6th in OREB), 13th in assists and 15th in turnovers per game. The advanced statistics have them at a respectable ranking on offense – they’re 13th in offensive net rating.
Detroit’s strength is a ferocious defense that has tons of length and physicality. They’re 4th in points allowed, 3rd in FG% allowed, 11th in 3P% allowed, 13th in rebounds allowed, 2nd in steals and 2nd in blocks. Once again, this is going to be one of the toughest defensive matchups the Hawks have faced this year and there’s a case to be made that it is the toughest matchup outside of OKC. The advanced statistics back that up because the Pistons have the second-best team defensive rating in the NBA.”
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