AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – The Detroit Pistons cruised to a 107-89 win over the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday night to finish the first half of the season at 16-25 and pull within one game of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
The Brooklyn Nets, who currently hold the No. 8 slot, fell at home to the Washington Wizards, allowing Detroit to claw one game closer. The Nets are the second coldest team in the NBA, having lost eight of their last nine games to fall to 17-24.
Less than a month ago, the 5-23 Pistons lost to the Nets and dropped 7.5 games behind Brooklyn in the standings. The postseason wasn't even in the realm of discussion for Detroit, which battled through one of the worst starts in franchise history. But after the holiday, the Nets dropped nine of 14 games to open the door for the surprisingly red-hot Pistons.
The fading Nets aren't the only team the Pistons have to worry about in the race for the final postseason position. The Charlotte Hornets have hit a hot streak, winning six of their last seven games to pull even with Detroit. The two teams own identical records heading into the second half of the season, with all four head-to-head matchups remaining.
Stan Van Gundy's team will polish off January with a gauntlet schedule. On Monday, the Pistons head to Atlanta to battle the No. 1 Hawks, who own a 16-3 record at home. Detroit then returns home to host the Magic two days later before hitting the road against the Bucks and Raptors, two of the top five teams in the East. A rematch with the 76ers sandwiched between home games against Cleveland (21-20) and Houston (28-13) round out the month.
In total, the Pistons will take on four of the top six teams in the Eastern Conference and the dangerous Rockets over a span of 12 days. If they survive that difficult stretch, the Pistons can set their sights higher than the No. 8 seed in the East.
Next up for Detroit would be the seventh-seeded Miami Heat, currently sitting at 18-22 after losing six of 10 games. Like the Hornets, the Heat have yet to see the Pistons this season, but will do so three times in the second half -- twice in Miami.
With 2.5 games between them and the Heat, the Pistons can reasonably hope to be in the discussion to catch the defending Eastern Conference champions in the coming months. But to do so, Detroit will need star center Andre Drummond to emerge from a major scoring slump.
Since Jan. 7, Drummond averages just 8.7 points per game and shoots 37.5 percent from the floor. In his first two years as a pro, Drummond shot 60.8 percent and 62.3 percent from the field. His 2015 shooting slump has dropped this season's mark to just 48.5 percent through 41 games.
Drummond's struggles have reached an all-time high over the last week, in which he made just 14 of 45 shots (31.1 percent) in four games. The third-year man out of Connecticut even got benched against New Orleans, when he contributed just two points and two rebounds -- an effort that prompted Van Gundy to call him out in the postgame press conference.
If Drummond wakes up from his offensive slumber to help the Pistons survive the second half of January, Detroit can focus on climbing up the ranks of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The second half is here, and the Pistons are eyeing the postseason, not the lottery.