Cade Cunningham is set to return for Detroit on Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, and Isaiah Stewart is expected back too after sitting out with a collapsed lung and a calf strain, respectively. Giannis Antetokounmpo will not play for Milwaukee in the matchup.
The timing matters because this is Detroit’s 80th game, the regular-season home finale, and the Pistons have already locked up homecourt advantage. They also sit one step from a milestone that has not come since 2005-06: if they win their final three games, they can reach 60 wins. Cunningham’s comeback gives them another chance to keep that path alive after Detroit rested a number of regulars and still lost 123-107 to Orlando on April 6.
Milwaukee arrives after losing in Brooklyn last night and has spent about a month playing out the string. The Bucks have dropped 17 of their last 22 games and have won only one of their last nine road games, a collapse that has left them 13-26 away from home and 20-29 against Eastern Conference opponents. For Detroit, the numbers move the other way: the Pistons are 30-9 at home, 36-13 against East competition and 10-4 against Central Division teams.
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The contrast is stark because the Bucks are on track for their worst season since Antetokounmpo’s rookie year in 2015-16, when Milwaukee went 33-49. The franchise’s last 50-loss season came in 2013-14, when it finished 15-67, and that is the standard now hovering over a team that no longer looks like a contender. Detroit, by comparison, has already secured homecourt advantage entering its regular-season home finale and still has Charlotte and Indiana left this week. The Pistons need wins in all three remaining games to notch their first 60-win season since 2005-06, a mark that would sit among the strongest in franchise history alongside the 59-23 team from 2007-08.
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Doc Rivers said in a separate comment that whatever transpires this summer regarding the “Greek Freak” will shape what comes next, but Monday’s game is about the present. One team is getting healthier at the right time and chasing history. The other is missing its best player and trying to get to the finish line without the season getting any uglier.
