Detroit Pistons at Miami Heat (-4, 202)

The Detroit Pistons look to construct off perhaps their biggest victory within the last seven seasons after they visit the Miami Heat on Tuesday to begin a two-game trip to the light State. The Pistons, who play at Orlando on Wednesday, won 94-90 at Chicago on Saturday to extend their lead over the ninth-place Bulls to 2 games of their quest to go back to the playoffs for the primary time since 2008-09.

Detroit is tied with Indiana for seventh within the Eastern Conference with five games left, including a couple against the playoff-bound Heat. “These are games you should be in in your team to grow and learn,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told the Detroit News. “Last year, at this time, we were just winding it up. It was coming to an end and it’s great to be playing in games that matter right through the season.” Miami clinched its 19th postseason appearance within the team’s 28 seasons after Detroit’s victory over Chicago, despite a 1-2 road swing capped by a 110-93 loss to Portland on Saturday. Heat leading scorer Dwyane Wade (neck, back) missed the last two games and is questionable for Tuesday.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, FSN Sun (Miami)

LINE HISTORY: The road was held back until Tuesday morning while everyone awaited the status of D. Wade. When a line was eventually released the warmth came out of the gates as 4.5-point favorites and the whole was set at 195.5. By mid-morning the warmth were dropped to 4-point faves and the full rocketed as much as 202.

INJURY REPORT:

Pistons - PG S. Dinwiddie (Questionable Tuesday, ankle), SG J. Meeks (Out Tuesday, foot).

Heat - SG D. Wade (Questionable Tuesday, neck), PF C. Bosh (Out Tuesday, leg).

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Pistons (-2.7) - Heat (-5.5) + home court (-3) = Heat -5.8

MATCHUP CHART:

ABOUT THE PISTONS (41-36, 39-36-2 ATS, 39-38 O/U): Leading scorer Reggie Jackson (18.5) snapped out of a shooting slump with 22 points against Chicago while Marcus Morris continued his scoring surge with 16. Morris is averaging 23.7 points over the last three contests and has drained 32-of-51 from 3-point range over a 12-game span. Tobias Harris has contributed 18.3 points per game during the last four, but defensive stopper Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has struggled in the course of the same stretch by making just 13-of-48 from the field.

ABOUT THE WARMTH (44-32, 39-36-1 ATS, 32-43-1 O/U): Miami allowed 106 points per game at the road trip – 7.5 above its average – and has a troublesome final six games because it battles three other teams for third place within the East. “Instead of just taking a look at the standings and where we’re going to finish up on the end of the year, we’ve really got to concentrate on us and take a look at to figure it out presently: How are we able to go into the postseason being at our best?” forward Luol Deng told reporters. Center Hassan Whiteside was outstanding with 18 double-doubles within the last 22 games.

DANCE TEAM BATTLE:

TRENDS:

* Pistons are 5-0-1 ATS of their last 6 when their opponent allows 100 points or more of their previous game.* Heat are 6-1 ATS of their last 7 vs. NBA Central.* Under is 6-0 in Pistons last 6 games playing on 2 days rest.* Under is 7-1 in Heat last 8 games following a straight up lack of greater than 10 points.

COVERS CONSENSUS: Early Covers consensus data is coming in heavy on Miami (59 percent) and the Under (60 percent).

Read More... [Source: Covers.com: NBA News and Stories]