Toronto 25-11, 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, 5-5 in their last 10 games
Detroit 13-24, 11th place in the Eastern Conference, 8-2 in their last 10 games
Toronto, with one eye on the return of all-star DeMar DeRozan, will try to continue righting the ship after a brutal voyage to the West Coast. James Johnson took DeRozan's place on Saturday, starting at small forward, and performed admirably. The defence improved against a well-coached, but depleted Boston squad, but there are other concerns, such as the low shooting percentage for Lou Williams (37.9%), Terrence Ross (36.6%), and Greivis Vasquez (38.8%) in the last ten games. Fortunately, all the rotation bigs are shooting over 50%, as they should be, with the exception of Patrick Patterson (46%). Tyler Hansbrough, Monocle Man, is 100% from three, but that is not enough to compensate.
Detroit, with the familiar, portly figure of Stan van Gundy on the sidelines, has finally started to come around, a third of the way through the season. Waiving Josh Smith on 22 December had the desired effect. Their starting bigs, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, are tough matchups for Toronto. Jonas Valanciunas needs to be at the top of his game, and the Raptors' power-forwards-by-committee need to all show up.
"It's fun, man," Jonas Jerebko told the Pistons' official website. "It's fun back at The Palace. I've seen it a few times, but it's fun seeing it two days in a row. The city is really coming behind us. We're trying to show them a good product that's easy to sell. I think it's pretty fun to watch us play right now."
Detroit 13-24, 11th place in the Eastern Conference, 8-2 in their last 10 games
Toronto, with one eye on the return of all-star DeMar DeRozan, will try to continue righting the ship after a brutal voyage to the West Coast. James Johnson took DeRozan's place on Saturday, starting at small forward, and performed admirably. The defence improved against a well-coached, but depleted Boston squad, but there are other concerns, such as the low shooting percentage for Lou Williams (37.9%), Terrence Ross (36.6%), and Greivis Vasquez (38.8%) in the last ten games. Fortunately, all the rotation bigs are shooting over 50%, as they should be, with the exception of Patrick Patterson (46%). Tyler Hansbrough, Monocle Man, is 100% from three, but that is not enough to compensate.
Detroit, with the familiar, portly figure of Stan van Gundy on the sidelines, has finally started to come around, a third of the way through the season. Waiving Josh Smith on 22 December had the desired effect. Their starting bigs, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, are tough matchups for Toronto. Jonas Valanciunas needs to be at the top of his game, and the Raptors' power-forwards-by-committee need to all show up.
"It's fun, man," Jonas Jerebko told the Pistons' official website. "It's fun back at The Palace. I've seen it a few times, but it's fun seeing it two days in a row. The city is really coming behind us. We're trying to show them a good product that's easy to sell. I think it's pretty fun to watch us play right now."
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