Raptors-Pistons Preview

By JEFF BARTL
Posted Mar 10 2012 12:23AM

The Detroit Pistons have played much better since their dreadful start, especially at home.

They'll seek their season-high fourth consecutive home victory Saturday night against the Toronto Raptors, who haven't won two straight in more than six weeks.

Detroit (14-26) lost 20 of its first 24 games, but has gone 10-6 since after beating Atlanta 86-85 on Friday to win for the third time in four games overall. Tayshaun Prince hit a runner with 24.3 seconds remaining for the Pistons, who also beat the Los Angeles Lakers 88-85 in overtime Tuesday at home.

They have gone 8-3 at the Palace of Auburn Hills since Feb. 3, but they haven't won four straight at home since a five-game run from Nov. 29-Dec. 12, 2009.

"We're learning how to fight through turbulence," coach Lawrence Frank said. "It could have been deja vu all over again, and yet we hung in there."

Greg Monroe scored 20 points and Jason Maxiell added 19 and 12 rebounds for Detroit, which will play nine of its next 10 games on the road following Saturday's contest.

"I think when you're starting to build, you have to look for the little things," Frank said. "Establishing a home-court advantage obviously is huge."

Detroit trailed by as many as 23 points Feb. 22 at Toronto before falling 103-93 despite 30 points and 14 rebounds from Monroe, ending its three-game winning streak in the series.

The Raptors (13-26) barely held onto a 17-point, fourth-quarter lead in a 116-98 win over Houston on Wednesday.

Coach Dwane Casey grew increasingly frustrated with his team that consistently has had trouble closing out games, though it set season highs for points scored and field goal percentage with a 59.2 mark.

DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points for the Raptors, who haven't won consecutive games since beating Phoenix on Jan. 24 and Utah the following night.

"I got up on our guys a little bit at the end because we kind of threw it around when we should have been playing smart, milking it, executing more," Casey said. "Win, lose or draw, we have to learn each and every time we walk on the floor, and that's what I was imploring our guys to do."

DeRozan also had 23 points in the first meeting with the Pistons, and he's averaging 21.0 points over his last seven games. His scoring touch has helped compensate for the absence of Andrea Bargnani, who missed his 20th straight game with a calf injury Wednesday.

Bargnani will miss Saturday's contest as well, though Casey said he expects the former No. 1 overall pick to be in the lineup when Toronto hosts Milwaukee on Sunday.

Despite Toronto's high-scoring effort Wednesday, it is averaging 90.0 points to rank 27th in the league - one spot ahead of Detroit's 89.0 per game average.

The Pistons won the most recent meeting in Detroit 107-93 on March 16, 2011, when Prince scored a game-high 22 points and Monroe added 21 and 10 rebounds.

Detroit has won 12 of the last 15 meetings at home.

Stuckey, Knight lead Pistons past Raptors, 105-86

Posted Mar 10 2012 11:57PM

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) Detroit Pistons coach Lawrence Frank only had one regret about Saturday's first quarter against the Toronto Raptors.

"It ended," Frank said with a chuckle after Detroit's 105-86 victory.

The Pistons outscored Toronto 37-14 in the first period and never looked back. Brandon Knight scored 15 points in the period, outscoring the Raptors himself.

"We always want to attack the rim, and we did a great job of that early," the rookie said. "We wanted to come out with as much energy as possible from the start, and we know we left it all on the floor tonight."

Detroit outshot Toronto 71 percent to 25 percent, taking advantage of Toronto's less-than-imposing frontline of Aaron Gray and Andrea Bargnani.

"Most of that was defense - we were getting easy baskets off stops - and we always try to be aggressive," said Rodney Stuckey, who led Detroit with 20 points and eight assists. "But we also knew they don't have shot-blockers in the middle, so we really tried to get the ball to the rim."

The Pistons, who are now 11-6 since a 4-20 start, had six players in double figures and shot over 50 percent for the second straight night.

"Obviously, we were very, very good all night," Frank said. "We got into an offensive rhythm and we got a lot of easy baskets."

After their terrible start, where they looked like they would battle Charlotte for the league's worst record, the Pistons have now gotten themselves within 3 1/2 games of the eighth Eastern Conference playoff

spot.

The problem is that they now face their biggest test of the season, playing 10 games in 10 cities in an 18-day stretch. Their only home game of the run comes on March 23 against Miami.

"This is the first trip I've ever taken like this, so it is going to be a learning experience," Knight said. "I just know we're playing better all of the time, and we have to keep it going."

Toronto, which beat Detroit by 20 in their first meeting this season, was led by DeMar DeRozan's 15 points, but only two others reached double figures. Bargnani returned after missing 26 of 28 games with a

strained calf, and scored eight points in 19 minutes.

"I'm shocked that we came out with that kind of effort," said Toronto coach Dwane Casey. "There was no defensive focus, there was no screening - there was no fundamental that we executed tonight, and I'm shocked."

Things got even worse for the Raptors in the second quarter, when Jose Calderon stepped on Knight's ankle at top speed and badly sprained his right ankle. He did not return to the game.

"We'll have to come up with something," Casey said about replacing Calderon in the lineup. "We have Jerryd (Bayless) and (Gary) Forbes at the point, and LB (Leandro Barbosa) can slide over. We'll figure it

out. It isn't an excuse."

Detroit still led 61-37 after a fairly even second period, but both teams remembered the game on Dec. 11, 2010, when the Raptors trailed by 25 in the third quarter before rallying to beat the Pistons 120-116 at

the Palace.

This time, though, the Raptors couldn't get the defensive stops they would have needed to pull off a repeat performance. Detroit scored 28 more points in the third, and led 89-58 going into the final period.

"They just outworked us," James Johnson said. "You would think we would be focused, but we just looked tired. We didn't accomplish anything we wanted to do. All the things we went over on film? We didn't do them."

NOTES: X-rays on Calderon's ankle were negative, but he is not expected to play in Sunday's game against Milwaukee. ... Tayshaun Prince became the sixth player to play 700 games for the Pistons. ... Charlie Villauneva (ankle) played the last three minutes - his first action since Jan. 4.

Notebook: Pistons 105, Raptors 86

Posted Saturday March 10, 2012 11:08PM

By Dana Gauruder, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Starting guards Rodney Stuckey and Brandon Knight combined for 39 points and 15 assists as the Detroit Pistons cruised to a 105-86 victory over the Toronto Raptors at The Palace Saturday night. The Pistons never trailed, leading by as much as 31 while winning their third straight. Guard DeMar DeRozan led Toronto with 15 points.

QUOTABLE: "We've been doing a good job of attacking lately. We knew they really didn't have any shot-blockers back there, so we were just trying to get stops and attack and get easy baskets. We did a pretty good job of doing that the whole game."
-- Stuckey on the Pistons' strong guard play

THE STAT: 15-14. Knight, a candidate for Rookie of the Year honors, single-handedly outscored the Raptors 15-14 and also had four assists as the Pistons rolled to a 37-14 first-quarter lead. That was their highest-scoring quarter of the season and morphed into a 61-point first half, also a season high. Knight, who had scored just six points the previous two games, made all three of his 3-pointers in the opening frame and finished with 19 points and seven assists.

TURNING POINT: Early leads can often evaporate when the reserves enter the game but Detroit's second unit had no trouble maintaining that advantage. Backup forward Damien Wilkins had eight points and two steals in the second quarter as the Pistons led by at least 20 throughout the second quarter.

QUOTABLE II: "My teammates were getting me open, setting good screens and putting their confidence in me. Then it was just me being aggressive from the beginning of the game."
-- Knight on his big first quarter

HOT: Pistons power forward Jason Maxiell followed up his 19-point performance against Atlanta Friday, which tied his season high, with a 12-point, 7-rebound outing Saturday. Maxiell has reached double figures the last four games while averaging 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds.

NOT: Toronto point guard Jose Calderon endured through a rough and abbreviated appearance. He was overwhelmed by Knight in the opening quarter, then suffered a sprained right ankle while stepping on Knight's foot in the second quarter. Calderon had to be helped to the visitors' locker room and could miss several games. Calderon who came into the game ranked third in the league in assists (8.7 per game), shot 1 of 7 from the field while scoring two points.

NOTABLE: Raptors forward and leading scorer Andrea Bargnani returned after missing 26 of the previous 28 games with a strained left calf. He was rusty, shooting 2 of 8 from the field while scoring eight points. ... Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince played his 700th career game in a Detroit uniform. He's sixth on the Pistons' all-time list in games played. He had 10 points. ... Detroit forward Jonas Jerebko contributed 13 points and six rebounds. ... The Pistons play nine of their next 10 on the road, beginning with a five-game West Coast trip. ... The margin of victory was Detroit's largest this season. Its previous high was 17 against Charlotte Jan. 13.

UP NEXT: For the Raptors, Sunday vs. Milwaukee, Tuesday @ Cleveland, Wednesday @ New Jersey. For the Pistons, Monday @ Utah, Wednesday @ Sacramento, Friday @ Phoenix.

• Raptors: Alabi, Carter
• Pistons: Macklin

• Raptors: --
• Pistons: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI
• Officials: #49 Tom Washington, #29 Mark Lindsay, #64 SirAllen Connor
• Attendance: 16090
• Duration: 2:09