Raptors win ugly game with Pistons

Dwane Casey wasn’t giving the Toronto Raptors any style points Wednesday night.

C.J. Miles had 21 points as Toronto pulled away for a 96-91 home win over the Detroit Pistons despite committing 21 turnovers.

“It was the ugly way,” Casey said. “That team is a very aggressive team.

“They were doing something a little bit different defensively that kind of threw our rhythm off a little bit with their traps. Hats off to them because they really got after us and then we made things hard on ourselves.”

Casey said Toronto did a good job in the first quarter moving the ball around before Detroit could establish its traps. The Raptors were rewarded by taking a 31-18 advantage into the second.

“I thought that stretch where we built a big lead we did do that, we did move the ball,” he said. “The ball was humming, zipping, we were passing before the traps got there.

“And then as the game went on we allowed the traps to get to us before we got rid of it. We made it complicated on ourselves but again we’ve got to give Detroit credit.”

Kyle Lowry added 18 points for the Raptors, who led by as many as 15 points in the contest. DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas both had 17 points apiece as Toronto (30-13) outscored Detroit 23-18 in the final quarter to secure its first win in three games and third straight over the Pistons.

Andre Drummond had 25 points for Detroit (22-21), which has lost three straight and four of its last five games.

“I’d say in the last three quarters we fought hard but the first quarter counts,” said Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy. “There’s just not very many times where we play a good defensive first quarter.

Three-pointers from Miles and Lowry gave Toronto a 90-83 advantage with 4:47 to play before Valanciunas’s two free throws boosted the lead to 92-83 with 2:23 remaining.