After securing a season sweep over the New York Knicks with another double-digit victory on Thursday night, the Detroit Pistons captured the NBA’s attention thanks in no small part to Cade Cunningham’s stunning 42-point display. 

Entering Madison Square Garden without the assistance of his All-Star teammate Jalen Duren, it was Cunningham who embraced the added responsibility and took control of the physical contest early. Cunningham was feeling it from both long-range and around the rim, and the All-Star point guard helped Detroit send a message to the rest of the league in the process. 

Now one game later, the Pistons are looking to continue their dominance over the Eastern Conference against the Chicago Bulls before facing a very important three-game stretch during the upcoming week. After tonight’s Central Division showdown, the Pistons will face the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers, so Detroit has a tough schedule to close out the month. 

At the Trade Deadline, the Chicago Bulls made a declarative statement that they were open for business and would be willing to trade virtually any player for the right price. Along those lines, the Pistons were able to strike a deal with the Bulls in a move that sent fourth-year guard Jaden Ivey to the Windy City in exchange for Kevin Huerter and a first-round pick swap with the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

So far, Ivey has struggled to acclimate to his new home in Chicago, and he even recorded the first DNP of his career two nights ago before making a series of concerning comments when the game concluded. Right now, the Bulls have a lopsided roster construction filled with more guards than necessary, which left Ivey as the odd man out two nights ago. 

Apart from that delicate balancing act, the Bulls have struggled mightily with eight consecutive losses on the bounce. With a 24-32 record this year, the Bulls are looking like a lottery team that is on the cusp of a massive rebuild, so it will be interesting to see what lineup Chicago chooses to go with against the East’s top squad. 

Although Josh Giddey was back in the starting lineup against the Raptors, the Bulls’ playmaker looked a bit rusty still and needed more time to regain his form after shooting 1-for-7 for five points in his return. 

The Pistons are still dealing with a few frontcourt absences tonight, though Duren is tabbed to return from suspension tonight. Apart from JD’s return, Tolu Smith is out due to a knee contusion, and forward / center Isaac Jones holds a two-way G-League designation for Saturday night. Of course, Isaiah Stewart still has five more games to serve before his suspension ends. 

As for the Bulls, Ivey is listed as questionable with patellofemoral pain syndrome in his knee, while forward Noa Essengue is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in December. 

Update: Zach Collins will undergo surgery on his right toe, which rules him out for the remainder of the season. Ivey, on the other hand, is out for tonight, but he will be reevaluated in two weeks to see if his knee soreness has improved. Note: this is not the same knee Ivey had arthroscopic surgery on back in October. Right knee then, left knee now. 

After the Pistons defeated the Knicks by 15 points, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff made a point that Detroit’s effort against New York is the same type of energy that he expects from his squad on a nightly basis. Even though the Pistons had a highly charged battle in the postseason against the Knicks last year, Bickerstaff expects his players to treat each game with the same intensity as part of the never-let-up mentality he’s instilled in Motown. 

“It just speaks to the depth and the character,” Bickerstaff said. “Because of the playoffs, the situation and all that, people want to make a bigger deal out of this than it is, but that’s not our approach. We want to hold ourselves to a standard every single night. We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the year, we believe in our depth. We’ve won a ton of games this year not at full strength. That’s a credit to our guys. That’s a credit to Trajan [Langdon] for putting together a team with this amount of depth where some nights we have some very tough decisions on who gets to play and who doesn’t get to play. But it’s the consistency that we’re hunting for, and I think our guys have done a great job of finding that consistency.”

This season, Buzelis has been one of the lone bright spots on the Bulls’ squad as a rookie with an abundance of promise. So far, Buzelis has used his size and quickness as a slasher to average 15 points with 5.4 rebounds per game in his first year as a pro, and he’s one of the more versatile players in the Chicago locker room. 

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