[Note by your friendly BullsBlogger, 03/24/09 2:00 PM CDT : Thanks to torch for today's game preview -ed.]

After last night's near loss to the Least of the East, it is hard to rustle up any optomism for our game tonight against the Pistons. However we can take solace in tow things: 1) A win is a win, and 2) the Pistons might be more beat up than Boston was a week ago.

Tonight begins Operation Toyota, our quest to pass Detroit and acquire the 7th seed in the playoffs.  Hollinger currently has us in the 8th seed in the East, with the same record as Detroit (40-42).  We currently sit two games behind them in the standings, having played two more games than they have.  More importantly, we play them tonight and again in three weeks. The only tough game we have remaining on our schedule is against Miami this Thursday at home and we only have two road games left. Detroit has a home game against the Lakers on Thursday, while also traveling to both Cleveland and Miami later this season and they have seven games away from Auburn Hills remaining.  If we take care of business tonight and on April 13th, we will be percentage points ahead of Detroit in the standings while holding the head-to-head tie breaker.  From there, we only need to win one more game than they do over our remaining schedule.  As far fetched as it may seem, this is reasonably within our reach

On to tonight's game: According to the Detroit Free Press, Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson are out for tonight, with Rip Hamilton being very doubtful. Besides the depth issues this poses Detroit, it also benefits us on the defensive end, as our guards won't have to chase Rip around and our bigs can stay closer to the paint, not having to guard Sheed at the time line. This makes tonight's extremely winnable, especially at home. Accuscore has us as a 3:1 favorite tonight.  Let's prove the computers right!

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Game time: 7:00 PM CDT
Coverage: TNT, ESPN Radio 1000