Toronto Raptors
Toronto Raptors|
Trayce Jackson-DavisHe was overmatched against Detroit’s starters and overpowered against its deep bench. He had a remarkably tough matchup against a bigger, stronger, and faster Jalen Duren. He gave up a straight-line drive to open the game, later another to Paul Reed. In the fourth quarter, he really opened up and scored a bundle. He drew free throws at will, and he threw in a line-drive spinning and-1 short jumper to keep Toronto within single digits.
Allen GravesHe was physically overmatched against Detroit, getting pushed around pretty much all night (which included getting dunked on by John Collins), but he still found ways to contribute around the edges. Mostly on the offensive glass, as his jumper was way off. He struggled being guarded by Ausar Thompson, which, yeah. He didn’t stop trying, but his attempts to take it to him, or to pull up from midrange, or even to tip in his own misses were all wayward early. He got on the board with a putback dunk at the end of the first, then won an offensive rebound in a crowd for another garbage bucket.
Jaden BradleyHe mostly looked like he did at Summer League. He mostly wasn’t competitive against the Pistons’ far superior talent. He had his handle poked and bothered, and he had trouble finishing against Detroit’s size. At one point, he attacked north-south with his handle, drew help, and dumped it off to his bigs. He hid a middy in the third against a closeout.
Nimari BurnettHe had a phenomenal game, even hitting clutch triples in the fourth to drag Toronto back into the game. He took a charge on a driving Ausar Thompson in the first quarter, later tossed in a tough reverse layup of his own. He won extremely contested rebounds in traffic, gathered a steal by jumping a passing lane, blocked a driving layup from Jenkins. He’s a clever player who finds himself in the right spot more often than not.
Alijah MartinKept Toronto alive for a long stretch. A physical drive and finish to open Toronto’s game, which he followed with a late-clock, snatch-back step-back triple. (wow) Banged in a fading mid-ranger a few minutes later. After a rest he checked back in and hit a Lowryesque pivoting turnaround middy. His offence cooled off, but he was defensively very active, and even jumped right to the summit with John Collins on a lob that he broke up (though he was called for a foul). He quieted down later, but he had a very Norman Powellesque first half.
Tyson DegenhartPoor guy had Cade Cunningham dancing with him into a stepback triple, and later Okorie shook him out of his defensive stance in the fourth. On the other side, he had a nice turnaround from six feet after letting his man jump past him, and later a push shot in transition. He hit a late triple, and missed the next, but got his own rebound and called timeout before falling out of bounds.
Jamarion SharpHe just felt invisible. It was clear he was thinking about where to be more than organically intuiting it, which led to him reading the game slower than was required against Detroit’s athleticism. He couldn’t create offence out of pick and roll as the screener. At one point, he did have an enormous rejection from behind, which he followed by running the floor for a putback dunk.
Tyreke KeyExtremely clutch for Toronto, and one of the best players in the second half, but he had to build up to that point. He had some good ideas early, with an attempted inside feed, and a cut layer from the opposite wing, but he didn’t finish either play correctly. Late in the first half he took a charge in transition. and he hit an impossible triple late in the third quarter, followed by a couple catch-and-shoot hits.
Malachi SmithHis offensive output was reliable against a strong defence. He drove in straight lines to draw fouls. He hit a late-clock triple out of a broken play, then another from above the break, a third in the third quarter to stop a Pistons’ run. Midway through the fourth, he drove, found the corner, relocated to that same corner as his teammate drove, and hit the triple as it was shoveled back to him. He had a gorgeous in-and-out dribble that gave him a free layup, which was maybe the nicest isolation move of the night from a Raptor. He didn’t finish well against Detroit’s ungodly size, and his handle was loose at times, but he was one of Toronto’s only offensive players who held up against Detroit.
Darko RajakovicTalk about having his bench guys ready to go. Against the Pistons’ real starters, the Raptors jumped out to a 9-2 lead. Compare that with Toronto’s starters massacring the Knicks’ bench a few days ago. That level of preparation and commitment to a meaningless game reflects remarkably well on Rajakovic. And eventually that lead dwindled, but the Raptors roared right back into it when Detroit rested its starters. Rajakovic had his team ready and bought in.
Things we saw
Toronto stayed in the game in the first half almost entirely from shot-making rather than good shot creation. At one point, the Pistons led the Raptors 10-3 in assists, yet the game was tied. And it wasn’t like the Raptors were winning in isolation, either. Martin was hitting some wildly difficult shots, and the Raptors were scrounging their way to points elsewhere.
Cade Cunningham is really good. He created so much whenever we wanted. Lobs for days.
At a certain point, Toronto stopped being able to hang. It was relying too heavily on difficult shot-making and offensive rebounds, and that stuff dried up. Malachi Smith stopped hitting everything, and Martin stopped creating, and the Pistons made a run. Then Burnett and Key started hitting everything again, and the Raptors stormed right back just as the Pistons pulled their starters. Shot-making giveth, and shot-making taketh away.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Cunningham had more minutes than any Raptor. Yet the Raptors were only down four. Wowzers, what a performance from the Raptors 905.
The Raptors were down three with only a few seconds remaining, which meant we got to see deep into Rajakovic’s bag for a game-tying SLOB — and after it got tipped out — BLOB set. Not much came out of either look, as the Pistons fouled up three. So boring, my gosh. The NBA has to legislate that out of the game yesterday.