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At 2-9 on the season, the Detroit Pistons still have a big hole to climb out of, but they've shown signs of progress in the last week. They notched their first victory of the season last Wednesday over the Philadelphia 76ers and also blew out the Boston Celtics by 20 points on Sunday. In between those two wins, though, they lost 110-106 to the Orlando Magic, who will be their opponent on Wednesday.
As the score would indicate, Detroit's defense was pathetic in that loss, allowing the Magic to shoot 49 percent from the field and 41 percent from three. The Pistons' two wins this season have come when the team has really clamped down on defense -- in those two victories, they've allowed just 79.5 points per game.
The good news for the Pistons is that Orlando is unlikely to repeat that performance, as their 96.1 offensive rating is currently the second worst in basketball. Detroit's defensive rating of 107.0 has been bad, but doesn't indicate that it is likely to play as badly as it did in that first lost to the Magic.
Wednesday's game tips at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on FSN Detroit.