Your Atlanta Hawks are up in suburban Auburn Hills, Michigan tonight (“A pro sports team in the burbs? Who does that anymore?” *cough*) to try and sweep a back-to-back tilt with the Detroit Pistons (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Detroit). But while the focus will probably be on outpacing Detroit for the second time in three nights, there’s a team over in Chicago that the Hawks may be placing their bulls-eye on.

With the Indiana Pacers blitzing to the top of the East standings and the Miami HEAT on pace for its fourth-straight division title, the Hawks’ loftiest aspiration this season may be the third seed in the conference. That spot is at least momentarily occupied by Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, the top non-division-leading team in the East with no threats below them in the Central Division. Chicago’s stifling defense wasn’t enough to overcome its stilted offense in last night’s road loss to Denver. Now, the 6-4 Bulls play again tonight in red-hot Portland, against Terry Stotts’ bunch that has rattled off eight straight victories. A win for the 7-5 Hawks tonight coupled with a Bulls loss would have these two teams trading places.

As T-Baby knows, it’s still So Cold in The D. The Piston offense has not exactly been firing on all cylinders, failing to eclipse 100 points in five consecutive games and shooting a league-low 28.8% on threes. On the other end of the floor, they are giving up a league-high 48.5 FG% to opponents, looking particularly woeful on pick-and-rolls, while snaring a league-low 27.2 defensive rebounds per game (20^th in defensive rebound percentage). Mo Cheeks (a four-time All-Defensive First Team member) and his Pistons staff do not seem to be getting as much pulp out of this orange as they could.

It is hard to gauge how attentive the Pistons’ Biggish Three will be tonight after seeming to mail it in late in the second half against the Hawks, combining Wednesday night for just 28 points and 22 boards in 105 minutes of collective floor time. These three seemed quite content with allowing Brandon Jennings (21 points on 9-for-21 shooting and six assists, four turnovers) and Rodney Stuckey (18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, but five turnovers and fouled out) to wear themselves out trying to keep pace with Atlanta.

Josh Smith (11 points on 5-for-15 shooting, including four missed threes on Wednesday) has to be relieved to get that visit back to Philips Arena out from under him. Expect him to attack the glass and the rim a little more tonight.

Possibly the most distracted of the trio is Andre Drummond, who provided 4 steals, 12 rebounds and little else on the offensive side Wednesday. In the time that’s elapsed between these two games, Drummond was put on blast as the target of a scorned Wikipedia hacker, essentially alleging that he can sing along with Nate Dogg the refrain from Luda’s “Area Codes” song and really mean it. “Sooner or later,” added the likely DontDateHimGirl.com gold-star forum member, “his immature ways and obsession with social media is going to catch up to him.” Perhaps… but not if Piston-fan dissension with 1.5 free throw attempts per game and shooting just 3-for-17 on the season gets to the 7-footer first! The way to emulate Calvin Murphy is at the free throw line, Dre.

Aside from 4 assists, Greg Monroe was a virtual non-factor. Monroe went 12-for-15 on free throws in Detroit’s season opener, but in his last four games he’s a combined 6-for-15. Mo Cheeks needs Monroe to help Drummond more on the defensive rebounding side, as he’s had 5 or more D-boards in a game just once in the past two weeks.

Cheeks will need his bigs to play more physical (and his guards to drive), drawing foul-line trips from the foul-stingy Hawks (17.9 personal fouls, second-fewest only to the Spurs). Atlanta sits at 5-1 when they commit 15 or fewer fouls in a game. Counterparts Al Horford and Paul Millsap were whistled only once each in the last game, and the very active DeMarre Carroll only twice, much to the ire of a frustrated Cheeks, who took an early referee-directed exit after Stuckey drew 5 fouls in the final quarter Wednesday to foul out of the game.

It’s not all bad so far at the Palace, not yet, anyway. The Pistons have gone 3-2 at home, with the two losses coming at the hands of the Pacers and the OKC Thunder.

One thing the Pistons are doing well is forcing turnovers (17.5 opponent TOs per game, 2^nd in NBA) mostly off of steals (9.9 per game, tied for 1^st in NBA), and converting those into buckets on the other end (19.6 PPG off of opponent TOs, tied for 4^th in NBA). One of Smoove’s paltry five field goals on Wednesday night was a dunk (Jimmy Graham did it better) after stealing a Jeff Teague pass for a breakaway. The Hawks kept the damage to a minimum on Wednesday, though, giving up just 13 points off of 21 turnovers in their 93-85 victory. Atlanta’s guards and wings will have to get back in defensive positions to keep Detroit’s fast break point tally low.

No need for a fiesta just yet, but with the Hawks giving up 100+ points just twice in the last seven contests, they are now below the 100 opponent-points-per-game mark (99.3 opponent PPG). After starting the first few weeks near the basement, they have moved up to 7th among Eastern teams in defensive efficiency (101.6 points per 100 possessions), tied with Orlando and just a shade behind Miami.

C-Viv reported that Lou Williams will remain here in the ATL, resting that knee in advance of tomorrow night’s meeting with the Boston Celtics. In his limited spells totaling just 14 minutes, Lou Will provided 5 assists, hit one of the Hawks’ four three-pointers (1-for-10 on threes by teammates of Lou and Kyle Korver), and converted a fourth-quarter and-one in Wednesday’s win. The Hawks could use an efficient performance from either John Jenkins or Cartier Martin in Lou’s absence.

Go Hawks!

~lw3