Dec

23

Malice At The Palace! Raptors Devour Pistons 94-64!

Posted by Jeff Sack under NBA Game Recap 

 

If Wednesday night’s game was not the low point of the season for the Detroit Pistons then it is going to be a miserable winter for fans of the club. The Pistons who up until last season had been one of the elite teams in the NBA for most of the decade shot a humiliating 27.9% (24-86) and an even more embarrassing 11.1% (1-9) from outside the arc as they were pummeled by the Toronto Raptors 94-64.

The point total for the Pistons tied the franchise low for points scored in a game. Detroit also was that bad on February 21, 1999 against the San Antonio Spurs and on March 3, 2005 against the Utah Jazz. The only time Detroit scored 20 or more points in a quarter Wednesday was in the first when they scored 21. They would never even come close to 20 points in a quarter for the rest of the game.

To  lose a game like this to Boston, the Lakers, Orlando or Cleveland would be tough to take but somewhat understandable. However the Raptors are a below .500 team and although they are now on a 3 game winning streak and have gone 6-4 in their last 10 games they are not a good team. 

Now you could not tell that by watching this game as they resembled the Showtime Lakers compared to Detroit. This was not a game where a good team beat up a bad team; this was a game where a terrible team seemingly made no effort to even be competitive against a team with a losing record. 

This game was over at the half; why Pistons coach John Kuester brought his team back out for the second half must have been as punishment. For there was no way that Detroit gave any indication in the first 24 that they even wanted to be playing, never mind competing. Toronto was nothing to write home about in the first but they were good enough to hold a 25-21 advantage when the quarter ended. The Raptors would put the game away in the second as they walked into the locker room at the half on top 54-37.

Things got no brighter for the Pistons in the second half as Toronto put their game into cruise control and Detroit never even came close to getting near them on the scoreboard. The Raptors would  hold a 74-51 lead at the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter was  even more pathetic for the Pistons until the game mercifully came to an end.

Raptors center Andrea Bargnani was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks while Jarrett Jack  had 14 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. Chris Bosh scored 12 points, 9 rebounds and 1 block while Hedo Turkoglu had a double-double as he added 11 points, dished off 11 assists and had 3 rebounds.

The Pistons got their two leading scorers  from off the bench as Will Bynum led the club with 12 points while Chris Wilcox had 11 more. Jason Maxiell and Jonas Jerebko would each have 10 points in the loss. Toronto improves to 14-17 and will host the Pistons on Sunday who will come into that game with a record of 11-18.

© Copyright 2009 thesackattack


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