The Detroit Pistons will feature a heavy dose of Daniss Jenkins on-ball tonight against the Brooklyn Nets
A couple hours ahead of tip-off in the Motor City, the Detroit Pistons took another blow to their already shorthanded squad when the team announced that Cade Cunningham status had officially shifted from questionable to out for their 6 pm game against the Brooklyn Nets.
Initially, Cunningham landed on the injury report with a quad contusion as the result of the San Antonio Spurs’ physical defense, and the All-Star is going to need at least one more game to recover from the competitive affair as the Pistons prioritize their health heading into the postseason.
Entering the Eastern Conference tilt, the Pistons were already expecting to take the court without third-year forward Ausar Thompson. During their most recent game against the Spurs, Thompson jammed his right ankle early in the first quarter and limped off in a considerable degree of pain and did not return, so the Pistons were already out one ball handler.
But with both Thompson and Cunningham sitting out tonight’s matchup with the Nets, the Pistons' backcourt depth will be counted upon to deliver against Brooklyn.
During the Spurs game, the Pistons took advantage of an opportunity to give meaningful minutes to both Kevin Huerter and Marcus Sasser while Thompson was receiving treatment to his ankle against San Antonio. It would be fair to expect a similar shift to the Detroit rotation for tonight’s game against the Nets, but also be on the lookout for second-year guard Daniss Jenkins to receive a much larger workload without Cunningham in the lineup.
Since the All-Star Break, Jenkins has hit a wall compared to the torrid pace to which he started the 2025-26 campaign, but a bit of regression from that standout start is to be expected for such a young player. Against the Spurs, Jenkins was held scoreless on six shots in his 15 minutes of action, though that performance was an exception to the norm for DJ. Jenkins will assuredly handle much more responsibility with the Pistons’ All-Star point guard sidelined tonight, and Sasser is expected to chip in with that department as well.
As for the Nets, guard Egor Demin is out for tonight’s game with a foot injury, but that is the only significant injury for Brooklyn to report at the moment.
From a wider lens, the Pistons enter tonight’s matchup with a 2-0 record against the Nets this season, so a victory would give Detroit the nod in terms of the season series between the two organizations. However, the Pistons have another contest with Brooklyn on the schedule just two games later on Tuesday, March 10 to wrap up the four-game arrangement between the two teams.
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