Slam Dunk Central

Richard Hamilton bouncing back from a loss against the New York Knicks in which he played to put it bluntly, terribly more than made up for it on Tuesday night as the Detroit Pistons defeated the Toronto Raptors 103-89. In Sunday’s 89-65 loss to New York Hamilton scored just 3 points, Tuesday night he scored a game high and a season high 39 points as he led Detroit to any easy win. The Pistons were coming off a stretch where they were showing chinks in  their previous impervious armor as they had lost three out of their last five games. A night like this in front of the home crowd at Auburn Hills, against a quality opponent, was just what the doctor ordered.

Detroit and Toronto played a competitive first half but the Pistons maintained the lead. Detroit had a slim 20-18 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Detroit opened up a 13 point advantage but Raptors guard Carlos Delfino went off against his former team, and the lead was cut to just 1 point at 51-50 at the half. But then Hamilton got into attack mode as he hit a career high 5 treys and Detroit broke ahead outscoring the Raptors 52-39 to win in a blowout.

Hamilton shot 16-22 from the floor, 5-6 from outside the arc, and 2-3 at the line for his 39 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds. Chauncey Billups scored 20 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds. Antonio McDyess scored just 9 points, but grabbed a game high 13 rebounds, had an incredible 7 steals, 3 assists, 2 blocks. Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell each scored 8 points apiece coming off the bench Maxiell had 9 boards.

Toronto was led by last week’s NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week Chris Bosh who recorded a double-double 16 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block. Delfino scored 14 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, Jason Kapono came off the bench to also score 14 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound. Jamario Moon scored 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, Anthony Parker scored 10 points, 3 boards, 1 block. Detroit is now 29-10, Toronto 20-18.
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