No team likes to play back-to-back NBA games. (That's when they play one night and have to play another game the very next night.) Many teams often rest older or banged-up players for one of the two games. Often the second game. Which often means losing it in exchange for protecting health. As for the Pistons, here's Michigan Live reporting:

Stan Van Gundy may have had a point -- or maybe not, in this case -- but the Detroit Pistons' president of basketball operations and head coach did not miss an opportunity to jab the NBA a bit about the back-to-back scheduling situation his team faces to open the season.

The Pistons beat the Atlanta Hawks 106-94 Tuesday in a game that started at 8 p.m.

They get right back to the grind less than 24 hours later with their home opener at 7:30 tonight against the Utah Jazz.

Van Gundy was happy with no four-game, five-night situations this year after four last year, and that his back-to-back spots are down from 22 last year to 20 this year, but still noted this week that the Pistons have shared the back-to-backs league lead each of his two seasons here.

"This league doesn't give you any time to celebrate," he said. "You go home and play a very good team, who's been in Detroit resting, tomorrow night.

"We're one of the very few teams, I don't know how many others, who get their home opener on a back to back. We thank the league office for that. You know, they always do take care of us."