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Pistons' Ish Smith: Will receive second straight start Friday

Smith will make his second straight start at point guard Friday against the Magic, Rod Beard of The Detroit News reports.

Analysis:

After essentially matching or surpassing Reggie Jackson's outputs for the better part of the last two months, coach Stan Van Gundy finally rewarded Smith with a promotion to the starting lineup Wednesday against the Bulls. While Smith wasn't awful with nine points (4-10 FG, 1-1 3Pt), seven assists, three steals and one rebound in 25 minutes, the Pistons still were on the wrong end of the blowout, so it wasn't guaranteed that the 28-year-old would receive another start. Van Gundy has decided to give Smith another look with the top unit, but the coach hasn't committed to keeping the point guard in that role for the rest of the season. As such, Smith will likely need to either raise his performance or keep the Pistons more competitive Friday in order to maintain his spot in the starting five. At least in the short term, Smith should benefit from a slight bump in minutes, but he'll still largely be stuck in a timeshare with Jackson at point guard.

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