The set-up: The 42-25 Utah Jazz open a four-game road trip in Detroit against the 33-34 Pistons. The Jazz have won five of their last six and currently own the No. 4 seed in the West, sitting two games up on the Clippers. Detroit sits seventh in the Eastern Conference and had won 12 of 18 games prior to being smoked 128-96 in Cleveland on Monday. "It was just a bad night," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters. "They were great, we were terrible. That is why you get a lopsided game."

Utah: The Jazz have had a superb season, despite numerous injuries to key players. New PG Hill (17.4 & 4.2 APG) has missed 20 games, SG Hood (13.4) has missed 19 plus two key players from last year, PF Favors (16.4 & 8.1 LY) and SG Burks (13.3 LY) have not been the same. Favors has missed 20 games (he's expected to miss his fourth straight contest tonight) and he's off last year's numbers at 9.6 & 6.2. Burks didn't get back on the court until Jan. 2 and his scoring has been cut in almost half (7.5). The team's best player, SF Hayward (22.0-5.5-3.5) sat out the season's first seven games but he's missed just one since and is producing a career year. Center Rudy Gobert missed Saturday's game against Oklahoma City but returned to post 11 points and 10 rebounds versus the Clippers in Monday's 114-108 home win, his fourth straight double-double and 46th of the season. Gobert averages 13.1 & 12.7 on the season and makes 65.0 percent of his FG attempts!

Detroit: The Pistons own an excellent seven-man rotation but as I've said before, the total seems less than the sum of this team's parts. Leading scorer forward Tobias Harris (16.4 & 5.2) is averaging 20.0 points in three games since returning to the starting lineup and 19.2 PPG over his last six contests. Center Andre Drummond (14.8 & 13.9) collected 14 rebounds against Cleveland but fell two points short of his ninth double-double in the last 10 games. PG Reggie Jackson (14.9 & 5.4 APG) had only six points on 3-of-13 shooting against Cleveland and has been streaky this month, scoring 19 or or more four times and eight or fewer in the other three games. This team is an enigma!

The pick: The Pistons won the season series a year ago but the Jazz crushed the Pistons in the first meeting this year, 110-77 back on Jan. 13 in Salt Lake City. Note that the Pistons have lost eight of their last 10 home games to the Jazz. Make it nine of theri last 11, as Utah is an 8* play.