Detroit Pistons: 5 keys to series vs Milwaukee Bucks

Key Number Two: Is Blake Griffin healthy?

No player in the NBA is 100 percent healthy. They’re all dealing with an ailment of some kind in some way shape or form. However, the Pistons need Blake Griffin to give them any shot of upsetting the Bucks. Griffin leads the team in points and assists per game.

He’s also the team’s best player in BPM, VORP and Offensive Player Impact plus/minus (OPIPM). When Griffin is on the floor, the team just plays at a higher level, especially on offense.

Griffin has been day-to-day with a knee injury over the last few weeks, and this was the first time he had played more than 67 games in a season since his fourth year in the league.

In addition to playing more games than he had in five seasons, he took on a heavier workload than he had ever dealt with before, as his 30.2 percent usage rate was a career high.

That took its toll on him as the year wore on, so will he be too worn out to battle with Giannis and the Bucks for seven games?

If Griffin plays at close to full strength in this series, they may have a shot at snagging a game or two off of the Bucks. However, he has struggled since the All-Star break as this heavy workload has worn him down.

His shooting numbers were down across the board, outside of his free throw percentage that went up. Giannis is the leading man in this show, and Griffin has to do his best of matching him on a nightly basis. He can only do that if this bit of rest helped him heal up.