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The Detroit Pistons will be without the services of Blake Griffin for Monday night's road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers due to rest, according to a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
Pistons have listed Blake Griffin (rest) out for tonight’s game against #Cavs. Second game of a back-to-back for Detroit.
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 18, 2019
The Pistons, who are currently holding the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference standings with a 36-33 overall record, will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back set. The team is likely giving Griffin this time off for load management. This will be his third DNP of the season due to rest.
In his last outing — a 110-107 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday — Griffin led the Pistons in scoring, racking up 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting, eight rebounds, and three assists in 33 minutes of action.
With Griffin ruled out against the Cavs, Thon Maker will likely see an up-tick in his usage rate at power forward. Maker logged 17 minutes against the Raptors, scoring seven points, three rebounds, and two blocks.
Monday night's Cavs-Pistons game is scheduled to tip inside Quicken Loans Arena at 7:30 p.m. ET, with FOX Sports Ohio having live broadcast coverage. With a win, Detroit will sweep the four-game season series against Cleveland.
“We've done a good job of stepping up to the challenge but wins are wins,” Griffin told ESPN ahead of Monday night's match-up. “If you don't face a team in the playoffs, it's just experience. (Cleveland) is a good team, have a lot of great players and we've done a good job against them.”
