Detroit Pistons (27-44) at Orlando Magic (22-51), 7 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - The Detroit Pistons will carry their three-game winning streak to the Amway Center Friday night for a tilt with the Orlando Magic in a battle of two teams headed for the NBA Draft Lottery.
With so many teams in the league jockeying for playoff positioning, the Pistons and Magic are doomed to an immediate feature of ping-pong ball revelations.
Detroit is playing well with four wins in its last five games. The Pistons begin a brief jaunt through Florida as they'll play the Miami Heat on Sunday evening.
The Pistons have knocked off playoff-caliber teams during this run with home victories over the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors and a road triumph against the Boston Celtics.
Detroit collected a 108-104 win over the Raptors last time out.
Reggie Jackson posted 28 points, nine assists and five rebounds to lead the Pistons Tuesday night. Jackson is the third Pistons point guard to torch Toronto this season. Brandon Jennings averaged 28 points and nine assists in two games before getting hurt, and D.J. Augustin scored 35 with eight assists in a Raptors win in late January.
"Reggie was outstanding," said Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy. "As his assists have gone up, his turnovers have gone down."
Andre Drummond posted 21 points and 18 rebounds, continuing his stellar play inside while Greg Monroe (knee) is sidelined. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 26 points in the triumph.
The Magic have dropped two in a row during this five-game homestand, which started with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers and ends Wednesday versus the San Antonio Spurs.
On Wednesday, Orlando fell victim to the Atlanta Hawks, 95-83.
Elfrid Payton highlighted Orlando's evening with 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Nikola Vucevic finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.
"It's frustrating. I thought we played well for most of the game," Vucevic said.
They did.
Atlanta opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from Dennis Schroder to tie the game at 71-71, but Andrew Nicholson fired in a trey at the other end, kicking off a 7-0 spurt that he capped with a jumper.
The Hawks went nearly four minutes without a point early in the fourth during Orlando's run. Al Horford ended the drought with a layup from Jeff Teague, and Kyle Korver hit a 3 that cut the deficit to 79-76 with 6:23 remaining.
Teague's layup almost two minutes later gave Atlanta its first lead since the opening minute, and he scored the final five points of what turned into a 22-4 run to end the game for the Hawks.
The Pistons took the last two meetings between the teams, including one in Orlando, where the squads have split the last four matchups.