Raps’ late collapse cedes win to Pistons
For three quarters it looked like the Raptors might just put their January- February struggle to rest once and for all.
The defence was locked in. The offence was doing its thing and the Raptors went into the final frame up 16 on the Detroit Pistons.
Then every problem that has confounded this team for the past six weeks collectively reared up and turned a promising Sunday into a team nightmare.
The Pistons scored 36 in the final quarter taking their first lead since the earliest stages of the game on a Kentavious Caldwell- Pope three from the corner with just 13.2 seconds remaining.
The Raptors still had a chance to win it but Marcus Morris defended DeMar DeRozan tightly as his 17- f oot t urnaround f ade away jumper hit iron and bounced away, giving the Pistons a 102-101 win.
The Raptors offence, the one area that has been somewhat consistent, managed just 19 points in the final frame.
It was the script from hell and it cost the Raptors a game they never should have lost.
The mood in the Raptors locker- room afterward was expectedly dark, but with a bit of a twist.
With the trade deadline just over a week away, both Kyle Lowry and DeRozan were openly entertaining the idea of change, though to be clear, neither spelled out exactly what kind of change that might be.
Lowry, who could be seen engaged in a heated exchange with head coach Dwane Casey during a timeout in the fourth quarter, was the more evasive of the two but there’s no question he is concerned about the direction this team is headed.
“Keep putting us in the same situations over and over and not being successful, something has to give, something has to change,” Lowry said.
Casey for his part focused on his team’s inability to put an opponent away as the major issue facing his team.
“We put ourselves in position to win, but we’ve got to learn to play with a lead,” Casey said.
“That’s our biggest issue right now.”
Overshadowed in the loss was another fine performance by DeMarre Carroll who is finding his offence over the past four or five games.
Carroll once again locked in from the field going 6-for9 including 2- or- 4 from behind the arc for a 15 point night.
Carroll is now 22-for- hislast-35 including 10- for-17 from distance over the past four games.
The Pistons got huge mileage out of its bench with Tobias Harris leading all Detroit scorers with 24. Among the Detroit starters it was Caldwell- Pope leading the way with 21.
The Raptors now head to Chicago for a game with the struggling Bulls on Tuesday.