Raptors 103 – Detroit Pistons 89: balanced scoring rules
By Brian Boake
The Raptors hadn’t played in several days, and looked rusty early against the Pistons. Not to worry, Dinos fans, our team found the range.
The Toronto Raptors were in Detroit, and determining the home team wasn’t easy. The noisy and numerous Raptors fans were not having fun early, but got their payback later. Toronto put a poor shooting Q1 behind them, defended with energy all night, and ran away from Detroit in Q4.
FIRST HALF
Toronto’s offense was labouring mightily in the game’s early going. As DeMar DeRozan goes, so go the Raptors, and DD was flailing to little avail. The Pistons asked Marcus Morris to belly up to our shooting guard, and the length of Morris, plus his refusal to leave his feet, was giving DeMar fits. Kyle Lowry was also frosty, and Norman Powell, who continues to get the starting role at small forward, wasn’t taking any pressure off our main men.
Happily Jonas Valanciunas was finding some room down low. The Raptors were defending well; on many occasions forcing shot-ready Pistons to dish the ball as a red sweater was too close. While all teams suffer from spells of poor shooting, superior squads limit the damage with D. The Raptors were down only five after 12 minutes.
The second quarter was a different game entirely. Toronto’s first six shots from beyond the arc were money. Terrence Ross ended up with 3 long balls going splash on 4 tries. The Raptors needed only 15 shots to generate 30 points, while the Pistons took 20 shots for 19.
SECOND HALF
The in-your-face Toronto D continued in Q3, and the visitors’ lead stretched to 13. The Pistons, led by Ersan Ilyasova, found the range late. When Andre Drummond swished a 3-point shot from his own foul line (no, I’m not exaggerating) as time expired, Detroit was within five.
Instead of being deterred, the Raptors punched the Pistons early and often in Q4. With less than 6 minutes to play, another Ross 3-ball pushed the lead to 14. A DeRozan 3-point play on a lazy reach-in foul by Reggie Jackson was the final nail in the coffin. The benches cleared with less than 2 minutes to play; our scrubs couldn’t keep up with theirs, so the final result actually flattered the Pistons.
IN SUM
Kyle Lowry started slowly, but didn’t finish that way. He was scoreless in Q1, but shrugged it off, and led all scorers with 25. He added 7 assists, with 2 lonely turnovers. DeRozan didn’t dominate, but his ability to chip in even when struggling to score is remarkable. He finished with 17 points, 6 dimes and 7 rebounds. We all should have such off-nights.
Jonas Valanciunas acquitted himself exceedingly well against Drummond. He scored an efficient 15 points. While he pulled down no offensive boards, the Raptors shot 55.7% for the night, so there weren’t a lot of boards to grab. He had 8 on defense.
Cory Joseph matched JV in efficiency (7 of 9 for 15 points). Precious few teams have three guards who can consistently produce points and defend like our group. A hat tip goes out to Patrick Patterson, who missed just one of four 3-balls. He and Cory were a combined plus_47.
NEXT UP
The Raptors’ last game before the All-Star break is tomorrow night in Minnesota. The youthful T’Wolves (does the T stand for Timber or Teenage?) lie in wait.