Thunder's Durant, Ibaka rest vs. Pistons

The Detroit Pistons can do a whole lot to help their own playoff cause Tuesday night, as both teams chasing them for the Eastern Conference eighth seed (the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards) are in action on the road, facing stiff competition (the Indiana Pacers and Golden State Warriors, respectively).

The Pistons have their own daunting date with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it's a considerably lighter challenge than ordinary, as the Thunder are sitting forwards Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka for rest.

The Thunder came into Detroit on the second night of a road back-to-back, following a dominant win over the Raptors in Toronto on Monday. They've got an eight-game win streak on the line, but given that they're all but locked into the No. 3 seed in the West, they're prioritizing health with just eight games left in the regular season.

"Obviously, the amount of information that gets handed down from the amount of minutes, games, loads, all the things that we are tracking during the course of the season," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of the decision, according to MLive's David Mayo. "Obviously the player, you want him to be on board with that; and then, having as I said earlier, having a plan in place to be able to, at different points in time, be able to rest somebody,"

Kyle Singler and Dion Waiters started in Ibaka and Durant's place.

The Pistons currently hold a 2 1/2-game lead on both the Wizards and Bulls, and sit just a half-game back of the Pacers for seventh in the conference. A win over the Thunder would make Tuesday an immediate win-win; they'd either put another full game between themselves and Chicago, or leapfrog Indiana in the standings. The Wizards, if they were to keep pace, would have to snap the Warriors' 52-game regular-season winning streak at Oracle Arena.