Pistons run over by Raptors, 103-89
Auburn Hills — Needing some much-needed momentum Monday night with the All-Star break closing in, the Pistons were faced with the job of cooling off one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference.
And beating the East’s second-seeded Toronto Raptors, the team that beat the Pistons 111-107 on Jan. 30, would not only provide some measure of revenge, but a major boost.
The Pistons hung around and trailed by five entering the fourth quarter, but were unable to keep pace with the Raptors down the stretch in taking a 103-89 loss Monday at The Palace.
BOX SCORE: Raptors 103, Pistons 89
Ersan Ilyasova had 17 points and Marcus Morris 14 the lead the Pistons (27-26). Rookie Darrun Hilliard and Reggie Jackson each scored 13, and Andre Drummond had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
“I thought we competed really hard,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I don’t think we made an inordinate amount of mistakes, particularly on the defensive end. But I do think what happened was every mistake we made at both ends, they made us pay for it.”
Drummond swished a 71-foot heave as the third quarter expired to make it 70-65, but the Pistons weren’t able to build off it.
Van Gundy sees Pistons backsliding on defense
Instead, the Pistons quickly fell into a double-digit hole as the Raptors opened the fourth with an 11-2 run on a three-point play by Kyle Lowry (25 points), a Cory Joseph layup, and back-to-back 3-pointers by Lowry and Patrick Patterson to extend the lead to 81-67 with 9:53 left.
The Pistons managed to cut it back to single digits less than a minute later on an Anthony Tolliver 3-pointer and Aron Baynes layup to make it 81-72.
But the Raptors (35-16) put the game away with a 17-6 run over the next five minutes. Lowry started the spurt with a running hook shot and jumper, Joseph added a layup and Terrence Ross (18 points) made a corner 3-pointer to make it 90-76 at the 5:54 mark.
Then after Jackson hit a jumper, Patterson made another 3-pointer, Joseph scored on a layup and DeMar DeRozan (17 points) provided the finishing touches with a three-point play to give the Raptors a commanding, 98-78 cushion and push the game out of reach with 4:01 left.
“We were in the game after three quarters…but we just couldn’t hang with them,” Van Gundy said. “They made too many plays and had a lot more guys play well than we had guys play well. That’s a game, if we’re going to beat that team coming in after three days off when they’re the most rested team in the league … we need a lot of guys to play well. We didn’t get that tonight.”
The loss signified two teams heading in opposite directions, as the Raptors have won 14 out of their last 15, while the Pistons had dropped five of their last seven.
“We’re trying to keep it positive,” Morris said. “At the end of the day we have to win games. If we want to make the playoffs we have to win. We’re definitely positive and definitely played hard, but we have to win — bottom line.”
After taking a six-point lead into halftime, the Raptors started the second half on a 9-2 run to take a 58-45 lead with 7:43 left in the third. Lowry spearheaded the surge with a layup, two free throws and a fast-break layup on a Jackson turnover before DeRozan ended it with a jumper from the elbow.
The Pistons cut it to single digits on a 10-0 spurt behind a pair of Drummond free throws, an alley-oop dunk from Morris to Drummond, an Ilyasova floater from the baseline and an Ilyasova 3-pointer to make it 62-58 at the 4:00 mark.
After the Raptors quickly reestablished a double-digit lead on back-to-back jumpers by Lowry and DeRozan and a Joseph layup to make it 68-58, the Pistons closed out the third with a Hilliard dunk and Drummond’s long toss to make it a five-point game.
“The way the third quarter ended was concerning, but we made it up with a run right there in the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "We're still making some plays, but I do like the way that we responded at the beginning of the fourth."
The Pistons got off to a solid start on both ends of the floor, using a 14-4 run to take a 19-11 lead with 3:27 left in the first quarter. Drummond started the spurt with a layup and Ilyasova followed with a mid-range jumper and 3-pointer.
After a baseline jumper by Jonas Valanciunas (15 points), Drummond and Ilyasova each split a pair of free throws before Jackson lost his defender and hit a floater. Jackson added a technical free throw on a defensive three-seconds call and Morris capped it with a jumper from the wing.
The Raptors countered with a 6-0 run behind a pair of DeRozan free throws, a Ross jumper and a DeRozan floater to make it 21-19, but Hilliard hit a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left to give the Pistons a 24-19 lead after one.
Hilliard picked up where he left off in the second, scoring the first four points on a floater and jumper to give the Pistons a 28-19 advantage.
But after Detroit held Toronto to 35-percent shooting (7-for-20) in the first quarter, the Raptors began heating up as they hit four 3-pointers in five possessions to cut it to 32-21 at the 7:53 mark.
Roughly two minutes later, the Raptors started a 13-3 run to reclaim the lead. Joseph started things off by splitting a double team for an uncontested layup, Lowry followed with a 3-pointer and Valanciunas scored on a layup.
Then after Morris hit a 3-pointer, Lowry connected on a jumper and Valanciunas had a dunk and lay-in to give the Raptors a 46-39 lead with 1:56 left in the second.
The Pistons cut it to three when Ilyasova and Jackson each scored on a layup but Ross nailed a 3-pointer to give the Raptors a 49-43 advantage at halftime.
“We talked about how (the Pistons) are a second-half team and they’re not going to stop playing,” Casey said. “We had a 20-something point lead (on Jan. 30) and they just kept chomping, chomping and chomping at it. You can’t relax and our guys didn’t.”
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