Pistons vs Toronto Raptors

Game Breakdown

*SPECIAL SITUATIONS*

• Start the game off with a turnover (another one a couple possessions later)

  • Raptors are middle of the pack in steals and blocks so this shouldn’t be an egregious game in terms of those things ALTHOUGH Barnes is a big part of those and has just recently returned (and he is the one that got this steal)

• Get out to a good start overall and up 14 - 4, THESE ARE THE MOMENTS where you can’t just immediately let the team right back into it

  • Technical on Beasley ATO, 14 - 5

  • Get a couple stops and a THJ after this, 16 - 5

  • Barrett layup but Duren answers with drive and 2 FTM!!!, 18 - 7 

    • At least haven’t let the Raptors make an immediate run, well done…they actually force another TO

• Raptors cut the lead to 7 to end the 1st quarter, Detroit needs to immediately extend it back out to double digits to keep full control of the game

  • Barnes with a tough bucket through Stew verticality (and you could hear him telling him about it on the broadcast also)

  • THEY NEED A BUCKET NOW, Beasley missed 3

  • Shead floater and the lead is down to 3, need a response

  • Sasser C&S 3PM (his 2nd!), now go get a stop

  • Stew goaltend, Sasser TO, Fernando lob dunk and it’s safe to say they have lost all of the momentum to the great start

    • AND EVENTUALLY THE LEAD

• It’s amazing that in the year 2024 we played 2 minutes of game action of an NBA game with NO CLOCK and the only way to know the shot clock is the PA Announcer saying “10” and “5” over the speakers

• Really, really good end to the 1st half to tie the game up after the Raptors had taken full control of the game behind Barnes

• DOWN 8 going into the 4th quarter and this is another one of those moments where you have to feel, and play with, the sense or urgency to immediately make the run

  • Ivey with an awesome off the ball cut and finish, Down 6

  • Ridiculous dribble off his foot TO from Beasley….these ALWAYS seem to come back to haunt you…..

    • Holland with a great individual defensive effort keeps that from happening

  • Beasley 2 FTM and then get another stop

  • Stew illegal screen (can always count on at least 1 ridiculous foul from him in a big moment) and Barnes OREB putback

    • Wings/forwards continue to be the issue on the boards tonight

  • Stew with a big time OREB and and-one, Down 3

  • Barnes 1 FTM, Down 4

  • HUGE BLOCK from Stew after Ivey fell asleep off the ball and then outlet to Holland, Down 2

    • Looks like they have at least put themself in position to play another close game late and see if they can find a way to pull it out

• END OF GAME - TIED

  • TOUGH bucket from Barnes, thought this was pretty good defense from Harris (down 2)

  • Ivey fouled, only makes 1 (down 1)

  • Poeltl with an ELITE “highway screen” for Barnes but he blows the layup (down 1)

  • Stew Grab and Go, looks a touch uncomfortable, BUT eventually finds Ausar for the bucket (up 1)

  • Same exact action, SAME “highway screen” which forces the help and Barrett knocks down the C&S 3P (down 2)

  • Beasley gets ANOTHER WIDE OPEN 3PA and misses (down 2)

    • He has gone ICE COLD after the hot start

  • Stew holds up JUST ENOUGH on the switch vs Mitchell, Harris gets the box out and they get a much needed stop (down 2)

  • Ivey goes AGGRESSIVELY in transition and gets the tough bucket (tied)

  • Stew with ANOTHER great contest forcing the miss from Barnes, Harris misses the box out and they get a tap out to Barrett for the open 3PA but missed….

  • Stew with a great tap out to start the break and Ausar misses the layup

    • THESE definitely always come back to haunt you in these moments

    • BUT NOT THIS TIME EITHER….Barrett with a miss 

  • TIED with :43 left

  • Beasley smartly pushes the ball in transition, Raptors don’t get back, Stew runs the floor and gets the dunk (up 2)

    • NO 3s!!!! No OREBs!!!!

  • Barnes with a physical drive and finish over Harris (tied with :23)

    • Really tough spot because you don’t want to give them any time to go win the game BUT you still want to be aggressive to get a good look AND a potential OREB…..let’s see what JB draws up

  • THEY HUNT AGBAJI AND IVEY GETS A TOUGH LITTLE FLOATER!!!!!

    • Pistons fans BEG for them to hunt the right matchup and the ball to be in the best players hands at the end of the game….you can dislike the little movement beforehand but that’s EXACTLY what this was

Pistons

• Ivey, Beasley, THJ, Harris, Duren

  • A couple things to watch for from the Pistons tonight vs the Raptors

    • Toronto is #1 in the NBA in OREB%, Detroit is a good rebounding team but has struggled against the BEST OREB teams in the league (gave up 17!!! in the 1st matchup)

      • Did a good job in the Poeltl minutes but it’s Fernando (vs Stew) hurting them in the 1st quarter

      • SOME of this is because Stew does come over to contest shots so much which puts pressure on the rotation defender to get a box out (Fontecchio missed one for sure)

      • This is starting to REALLY show up here in the 3rd quarter now AND it hasn’t been on the shoulder of the bigs, the wings are missing box outs

    • Toronto is LAST in opponent FTA, Detroit is bottom 5 in the league in offensive FTAs....can Ivey and company find a way to get to the line???

      • They have definitely taken advantage of this, at least in terms of getting there….just wish the % was better

  • 4:25 1st quarter is an AWESOME defensive possession

    • Defending ball screen, Stew does a good job playing both but Harris still steps over as the tag man, Ivey see’s it and makes the X out and then able to stay with the driver attacking the closeout and forces a miss

  • Simple FC pressure, and really the pressure at HC, is completely derailing them

    • And this is WITH Ivey on the court

    • Really nice ATO from JB to take advantage of that pressure and get Ivey the backdoor off the Duren pass

    • 1:30 2nd quarter is what you have to do

      • Ivey finally just GOES BY, doesn’t play with the ball and try to run action, and gets Harris a wide open 3PA (he misses but it was WIDE OPEN)

      • You beat pressure by ATTACKING it

  • Honestly, the offense hasn’t been bad generating good looks but they are 7/24 from 3 here early in the 3rd quarter with most of those misses coming from the 3 vet additions of Beasley, THJ and Harris

• DUREN slowly doing more and more of the grab and go we saw last year

  • Actually produces a very positive transition layup for Ivey the 2nd time in this game

  • Continuing to see more of the face up and attacking downhill as well

    • He is giving Poeltl fits with this

  • A couple finesse finishes to start the game

  • FTs continue to be an issue

    • Below 55% on the season and misses his first of the night

  • Want to continue the DHO drop behind pass he has been utilizing this year

    • It is impactful and you see him get Beasley a clean look from 3P early in the game

  • We know he can finish lobs and OREBs and all of that but he does seem a touch uncomfortable when he has to finish off a straight vertical jump at the rim

    • 7:40 1st quarter he does a great job getting transition post position but decides not to shoot it and dribbles into a 7 foot fade away jumper

  • GREAT rotation block on Barnes, continues to do this more and more, and I feel like he has had an AWESOME 1st half thus far

    • Follows this with a contest THEN recovery VERTICALITY contest on Poeltl

• HARRIS on Barnes, these are the matchups they NEED him to be able to at least hold up decently against

• BEASLEY HOT to start the game

  • Doing too much/being forced to do too much off the dribble

  • And all of a sudden can’t buy a 3PM

    • And he has gotten some really, really good looks

• IVEY passing and process has been very good to start the game

  • 5:45 1st quarter is an ELITE live dribble left hand pass to Beasley on the move AND it all started with him attacking the DREB

  • 2:00 2nd quarter is ELITE eye manipulation on another transition situation that gets Harris a dunk AND it all started with a perfect weakside rotation steal

  • :45 2nd quarter is awesome process

    • I was starting to get nervous he was getting too comfortable “settling” for the 3PA but he turns it down, attacks and jails, and gets himself to the FT line

  • He has been SO GOOD all night and then forces a no reason pass to Stew in the paint, didn’t even have good position and the help was there, AND THEN misses the box out on Barnes on the ensuing defensive possession

    • He has been the guy a few times that was supposed to get the weakside rotation box out and didn’t

  • In general, I think he has done a really nice job creating for his teammates though

• AUSAR!!! So cool to see him back on the court

  • Regardless of how he actually plays, which we have plenty of time to discuss, I am just happy to see him healthy

  • You immediately see the difference between him on Barrett and anyone else

  • Not always producing but you can see the potential creation ability with the ball in his hands

    • Even the foul call when he DHO with THJ was a really smart action

    • Grab and Go lob to Duren

      • This is another reason why I am not so quick to yell for a “vet PG” to be added….I wanna see what Ausar can do, even if there are growing pains with it (there will be)

  • He is SOOO GOOD anticipating where the offensive player is attacking, getting to the spot to cut them off AND playing with his chest so he can be active with his hands

  • I don’t want to overstate this but I do feel like the C&S 3P looks more fluid, even the first one that he missed I felt this way

• SASSER C&S 3PM….yes, live here Marcus!!

  • Has 3 total makes in the game, stays ready

• THJ stays taking charges and I will continue to give him love for it

  • AND HE TAKES ANOTHER!!!

• STEW with some ridiculous touch on the one hand tip back

  • And a little credit to Holland for at least getting the shot on the rim after a completely awful offensive possession

Raptors

• Mitchell, Agbaji, Barrett, Barnes, Poeltl

  • Barnes-Poeltl PnR having success early

• BARNES with a smooth looking mid range jumper for their first points

  • Knocks down back to back 3P and those jumpers looked solid as well

  • He has to be one of the biggest outwardly trash talkers in the league (which I am fine with, fwiw)

    • Heard him talking to Stew after a finish and then did Beasley’s shimmy after the 2nd of these 3PMs

  • I mean, if he scores the ball like this, I am not sure how you guard someone with his size and other abilities

    • He has scored at all 3 levels with some level of difficulty on multiple of the makes

    • Has one late where he gets cut off, reverse pivots, and soft touch over the contest from 6 feet

  • Love that even at his size he has an understanding of ball screen nuance with jailing the defender and snaking the screen

• MITCHELL is really hard to deal with as the point of attack defender

  • I think this is what I was expecting/hoping we were going to see from Sasser on defense

• BARRETT has been the offense thus far, he is REALLY good when he gets to his left hand

  • I am sure this is true for a lot of players but his home/road scoring splits are VERY eye catching and that has played out through 3 quarters tonight

  • Hits a HUGE 3P when they needed it late though

• FERNANDO being the guy that is destroying the Pistons on the offensive glass in the 1st quarter

  • He is really good at this when you look at the per36

• SHEAD pressures the lane and pressures the lane and pressures the lane every time I watch them

  • AND pressures the ball at the point of attack

  • 23% 3P shooter and he knocks down 2 big C&S 3P in this quarter

    • Both were WIDE OPEN

• MOGBO a very fluid athlete and looks more than comfortable with the ball in his hands going full speed for a big guy

• POELTL had a very quiet 1st half but they get him involved immediately to start the 2nd half

  • Idk if people always realize the level of difficulty on the level push floater he hits on the baseline in the 3rd quarter

  • He is an elite “highway screener”, just does a lot of the dirty work things that you want from your big man

• BOUCHER has seemingly played well this year and had some really nice games BUT it has not happened in the ones that I have personally watched

  • But man, he has made some nice OREB putbacks

• BATTLE can shoot that thing, you have to run him completely off the line

  • Proves me wrong with a nice little floater a couple possessions later