The set-up: The Detroit Pistons watched Spencer Dinwiddie bury a last-second shot in Sunday's 101-100 loss to the Nets, falling to just 13-8 at home this season. The Pistons have now lost five in a row, a streak that has seen them fall below .500 at 22-23 and out of the top-eight in the Eastern Conference. Detroit began a stretch in which the Pistons would play 13 of 15 at home by falling to the Washington Wizards 122-112 on Friday, then lost to the Nets and now welcome the 19-29 Utah Jazz to Little Caesars Arena. The Jazz looked good in a solid home win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday but began their stretch of seven of eight on the road with a 104-90 setback at lowly Atlanta on Monday.

Utah: The Jazz will play their only home game over the next 2 1/2 weeks against defending champion Golden State and had averaged 120 points in the three games prior to Monday, when they were just awful against the Hawks. No Utah starter managed more than Donovan Mitchell's 13 points against the Hawks. Mitchell (19.2-3.4-3.4), who is arguably the NBA's top rookie so far, pointed to effort as the issue. "There were times where we kind of looked like we didn't want to play, myself included," Mitchell said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "That's not us. That's not our identity. I think we just gotta come out with more life and more energy. I think if we play like we played here, there will be a lot of nights like this." SG Rodney Hood (16.7) has been a consistent scorer along with Mitchell plus it's good news that center Rudy Gobert (12.0 & 9.7) has gotten back on the court these last three games. The rim-protecting big man recently missed 15 games with a sprained left knee, a stretch that was preceded by an 11-game absence in mid-to-late November

Detroit: "There's nothing big. There's nothing glaring," Pistons forward Anthony Tolliver told the team's website after the 101-100 loss to the Nets. "It's little things that add up over the course of 48 minutes that loses these games. We just need to clean up those little things and if we do that, we'll put ourselves in position to win every night." I'm not so sure Tolliver is right. After all, Detroit is 3-9 since starting point guard Reggie Jackson (14.6 & 5.5 APG) went down with an ankle injury. The team is struggling on the offensive end without him around to start the pick-and-roll and drive the paint. Small forward Tobias Harris (18.1) leads the team in scoring but is shooting just 37.7 percent from the floor over the last five games, including 5-of-26 from three-point range. Center Andre Drummond (14.3 & 15.0) is a double-double 'machine' but Detroit averages just 102.3 PPG (25th).

The pick: The Pistons seemed like a team on the rise during the early going (14-6 through their first 20 games) but since New Year's Day, they have played like a team bound for the lottery. Detroit has dropped eight of its last 10 games and enters Wednesday on a five-game losing streak. The bottom line is, the Pistons haven't been the same team since starting PG Reggie Jackson suffered a Grade 3 ankle sprain in late December. As for the Jazz, they were 13-11 early in December but have fallen to 19-28 after Monday's loss in Atlanta. More bad news for Utah is that Rodney Hood (the team's second-leading scorer) is expected to miss his third consecutive game with a lower leg injury, hurting an offense already averaging only 101.6 PPG (26th). Both teams play excellent defense, as Detroit allows 102.2 PPG (6th) and Utah 102.5 PPG (7th), leading me to make the Under an 8* play.