Raptors stall, but then roll over Pistons
Eventually the Toronto Raptors took care of business in this one but through a half there were some very real concerns.
Up by as many as 12 points in the first half the Raptors appeared to have lost their killer instinct, allowing the Pistons to stay in the game heading into the second half down by just six.
But a 34-point third quarter while holding Detroit to just 22 opened up some breathing space and once again allowed coach Dwane Casey to keep all his starters under 30 minutes for the night while adding to the win total.
The 123- 94 final was as much about the Pistons’ inability to find any flow as it was about Toronto’s own dominance.
Detroit just feels like a team out of sync and that feeling wasn’t helped any with newcomer and new face- of- the- franchise Blake Griffin being bottled up by Serge Ibaka. The Raptors’ defence limited Griffin to just 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting and a single rebound in 33 minutes of play.
The Raptors now head out on the road for two beginning in Orlando on Wednesday and then on to Washington Friday where they will take on the red- hot Wizards in what should be the toughest game of the week for them.
MORE AND MORE OPTIONS
End of game execution remains a hot topic with the Raptors.
Before Monday’s game against the Pistons, head coach Dwane Casey revealed the team has at least 20 scripted plays for those situations although he admitted many of them have not had their debut.
“At least ( two dozen) and then options off each of them,” Casey said of the lategame playbook.
“Our issue, and I think I said it the other day, it’s hard to duplicate those end of games. We try, we put score disadvantage, time disadvantage on guys, put them in tough situations. It’s even tougher in practice because guys know what’s coming. It’s hard to replicate the stress level, the angst, the pressure of the moment of the game. I don’t know what our number is but our end of game situations haven’t been a lot lately. It’s almost like a few years go we had quite a few and you got used to it.
“That’s something that’s our challenge now, to execute better, to make the plays, make buckets, make open shots at end of games and at the other end, execute defensively, too.”
Last Friday the Raptors successfully ran an end of game play for Jonas Valanciunas. To hear Casey tell it, there’s going to be more of that in the future.
“I think Jonas’s skill set has developed to where there’s a trust level there, that he can do some of those things,” Casey said. “We’ve got some more things that we have, we work on, we haven’t used them that are there involving Jonas and (Jakob Poeltl) and some of those guys.”
PISTONS POTENTIAL PLAYOFF MATCHUP
It was looking more likely heading into the all- star break than now, but the chance remains the Detroit Pistons will be Toronto’s firstround opponent.
Coming i nto Monday night’s game the Pistons sat ninth in the conference, 2 ½ games out of eighth. With the Raptors in first in the conference a first-round matchup is still in play.
The Pistons are reeling at the moment trying to incorporate a star into their lineup and doing so with their starting point guard Reggie Jackson out the past two months with a grade 3 ankle sprain.
The Pistons have lost five of the past six coming into Toronto and have two more dates with the Raptors over the final 23 games.
Jackson is expected back in mid March and while the Pistons as a whole are still figuring out how to be most effective around Griffin, the Raptors believe there is already a nice comfort level between the former Clipper and Andre Drummond.
Miami right now has the eighth spot two games back of Philly in seventh, but those final two regular season games in Detroit may not be the last the Raps see of the Pistons this season.