The Toronto Raptors going into this game have won the first three match-ups with the Detroit Pistons this season. The Pistons have regressed and the Blake Griffin trade has not worked out for the Pistons as they would have hoped. Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Bullock were all sitting out in this one. Serge Ibaka, Lucas Nogueira, and Fred VanVleet sat out for the Raptors. Pascal Siakam got the starting power forward spot. Dwane Casey was not going to let his team rest and lose the momentum that they were playing with so both DeMar and Lowry were available for this one.
The game started with the Raptors jumping to the early 15-6 lead. JV and Siakam both hit their first three point attempts and things were looking good. But this Pistons team had a lot of fight and Luke Kennard hit back-to-back threes to prevent this game from being a blowout. Toronto were a step slow in their rotations and it was expected since they did play a game last night against Orlando. The Raptors’ turnover problems continued and allowed the Pistons to close the gap. Both teams were able to score relatively easily and the score was 32-32 after 12 minutes. Jonas led all players with 11 first quarter points.
Toronto had to call up a bunch of the Raptors 905 squad to fill up the undermanned roster. The Raptors 905 squad are currently in the G-League Finals and got called up to play last minute. Lorenzo Brown, Malcolm Miller, and Alfonzo McKinnie all had to pack their bags and fly to Detroit and will be on the road back to Toronto to play their G-League Finals Game 2. The depth of the Raptors is what makes this team so great and having these guys fill in the rotation really helped. The Raptors’ defense was poor in the second quarter as they allowed too many high percentage shots in the paint. Ish Smith was dynamite and was unstoppable due to his quickness. The change of speed between Reggie Jackson to Ish Smith was night and day. Ish Smith got anywhere on the court he wanted to and went 6/6 for 13 points in 7 minutes of action. This was where the Detroit Pistons went on their 21-6 run to take a huge lead over the Toronto Raptors who continued to miss wide open shots.
The Raptors could not believe how many wide opens shots that were not going down especially CJ Miles who was open multiple times and was clearly frustrated. Toronto continued to fly out at shooters and shooters like Luke Kennard allowed the Raptors to fly by and reposition themselves to knock down the open jumpers. The score was 44-60 with less than half the quarter left to play. But Toronto has been a resilient team all season long and they went on a 13-0 run to end the quarter and stole all the momentum heading into the second half. The score was 57-60 with the Raptors only down 3 points with JV leading the way with 17 points and 7 rebounds.
In that first half, the Toronto bench had been outplayed and outscored. This was a reason why the Toronto Raptors went down by so much earlier in the game, but the starters brought this game back to an one possession game before halftime. The Raptors continued to feed JV where he continued to feast on the Detroit Pistons inside. OG’s confidence in his shooting has grown in the past week and he was taking shots that he normally doesn’t take and making them with consistency which was a great sight to see. Lowry and JV had a great two-man game going as they were able to dissect the Pistons’ defense and get high percentage looks on the offensive end. Jonas led the way with 25 points and 9 rebounds at the end of the third quarter with an 85-80 lead.
The Bench Mob began the fourth quarter and were playing with energy and focus. This team witnessed how hard the starters were working and wanted to match their intensity. The starters did not re-enter the game in the fourth as the bench took care of business. The bench was up 100-81 in the fourth quarter and took their foot off the gas. The Pistons cut it down to single digits with about 4 minutes left in the fourth, but the deficit was too large for the Pistons to complete the comeback. The bench did a good job of scoring in transition and getting stops on defense. The Raptors sweep the season series with the Detroit Pistons and head off to Miami on Wednesday to play their last regular season game.
Toronto Raptors Detroit Pistons
108 98
Player of the Game
Jonas Valanciunas
25 minutes, 25 points, 9 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover, 11/13 shooting, 1/1 3PT, 1/1 FT, +21
Easy choice to have JV as the player of the game. He was dominant in this game and scored 25 points on great efficiency and only in three quarters of playing time. He was able to take advantage of the small frontcourt the Pistons had without both Drummond and Griffin. Casey always tells JV that if he wants to stay on the floor against teams that are going for spacing rather than size, he has to dominate the paint and that’s exactly what he did. JV scored in a variety of ways from his outside 3-pointer, mid-range jumpers, fade-aways in the post and the classic slam it in your face dunk. Great night from the Lithuanian big man who will be depended on heavily going into the post-season.
Things To Take Away From This Game
1. Taking Care of Business
This Raptors team has done an excellent job of taking care of business against the sub-par teams in the NBA. They lead the league in this category and is a major reason why they sit on top of the Eastern Conference. The bench knew that the starters required rest going into the grueling post-season and did everything that was asked of them in that fourth quarter. The Raptors have known swept five different NBA teams this season which has never been done before so that breaks another record for this historic team. Toronto will look to take care of business against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
2. Improvements
Toronto keened in on one of their recent problems and that was their weakness. Now they did turn the ball over a lot more than the Pistons, but 9 turnovers for a game was somewhat of a rarity recently. This team has turned the ball over in double-digits in the past few games and can not be heading into the post-season not valuing each and every possession. The Raptors playing with pace can result in turnovers, but the aggression and speed they play with is vital for this team’s success.
3. Meaning
The Raptors continue to play these games to not only carry their momentum and build a rhythm, but also to clinch home court in the NBA Finals if they run into the Golden State Warriors. This is obviously a big stretch for a team that has not come close to winning the Eastern Conference Finals until a couple years ago, but this team has a lot of believers and tons of haters to prove wrong. The number of non-believers in the Raptors has increased ever since the two playoff exits at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but this is a completely different Raptors team and they will have to prove their merits when playoffs arrive.
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