Game #34 Toronto Raptors vs Detroit Pistons Mar. 3, 7:00 pm Eastern(???)

[DanH]

Hated not starting Boucher. Needed 40 minutes from him to have a chance to produce enough to keep up. He'd barely played by the time the game was out of hand heading into the 4th, really weird decision. He's a guy who does great beside Lowry too, trying to use him to buoy non-Lowry lineups (especially in this game where non-Lowry meant a random selection of our 10th-15th guys) is incredibly silly. Only real strategy was to spam our best players together for as long as possible and try to muck up the rest minutes with defence only lineups. The middle ground was just going to leave both lineups losing their minutes.

Crappy luck with DET hitting everything, but even if they shot a reasonable rate we lose this one. Just too many guys out, too many minutes from the really bad players, not enough minutes from the sorta OK players.

Reality is, with so much of the team missing, we'll be lucky to win any games heading into AS. I thought we might take this one but we really do need so much to go right from the depth pieces if the other team gets hot at all.

[planetmars]

Didn't think they could top that loss to Minny earlier this season.. but wow that was ugly. The depth/bench is the worst I've seen in a long-long time. Norm and Lowry needed help.. now if the Pistons shot like they normally do, we probably would have still squeaked out a win.. I mean we did get it to a 5 point game somewhere in the 4th. It's just that the bench did absolutely nothing and gave the Pistons points.

off the top of my head...

Yuta goes on a fast break and botches it because he's out of control. He shoots basically two air balls from 3. Stanley air balled a 3.. I definitely remember at least one, but he missed both his shots. Boucher was letting the Pistons big man get in the paint and shooting floaters above him, every single time. He was over helping on defense, getting guys easy dunks in the paint too. Doesn't help that there were so many Pistons blowing by our perimeter defenders. Matt Thomas was absolutely horrendous. Terrence Davis started, but oh boy was he horrible. Taking side step 3's with a guy in his face with 17 seconds on the clock and bricking it. To missing a wide open 3 that Lowry gifts him.. to coming back on defense and fouling a guy at the half court line when they were in the bonus. He was 2-11 and one of his makes was in garbage time I believe. Bembry put up 0's except for 5 dimes.. but was usually out of control and losing the ball. He had 4 fouls and was a -23. Watson was pretty good although a bit erratic. Just didn't get enough time for some reason.

The Raptors have always had depth under Masai.. actually that was his first big trade. Swapping Gay for a bench turned that team around. We have no bench this year. Our bench is just full of scrubs. Baynes, a starter last night, is a bench big.. and sucks.. but he was maybe our 3rd best player which speaks volumes.

Maybe its Covid and not playing in front of a proper crowd that wrecked our bench. I have no idea.. but they were awful last night. And it's going to be worst tonight. Pritchard is going to score 50 on us.

On the positive.. Norm has evolved into a consistent scorer. He was doing some funky things last night. I really see no reason to trade him for a Beal or Dipo. He's really the only one that can score consistently on a team that has trouble scoring the ball.

And Lowry was great as usual, but he couldn't carry that bench. He tried.. but that bench just flat out sucks.

[inthepaint]

Man if tonight was like this tomorrow will be a 40+ blowout

[Dvdvideo]

Rough game, just goes to show us I guess just how important Siakim, Vanvleet and Ananoby are to our team defense and our overall offense.
Even one of these guys in this game would have made a huge difference.

[Yuri Gagarin]

🤮

[G__Deane]

If they can't beat Detriot, it doesn't look good for the Celitcis

[MixxAOR]

Excited for the future

[The Claw Reborn]

one more thing....Nick Nurse will probably elevate Beal to a legitimate MVP caliber player.

How good in player development Nurse is, doubtful he can do that on a Powell, Van Vleet and Siakam...some players just have ceilings

[The Claw Reborn]

Or just resign Powell long term. He’s turning into a great trade chip.

If it does not work out with Beal, moving forward he has more trade value talent wise/ household name/ All Star title and a 30 million/per salary than a Powell who most likely will only earn 18-20 million/per and you may have to attach another player and possibly a first round pick to roll him over for a game changer down the road (that could be more costly).

On the flip side, if it works out with Beal...he is a Heat/Brooklyn/Boston/Lakers/Portland and Denver killer this season.

While Powell and most of us would prefer for him to play the Bucks for 82 games and in the post season.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Reminded me of Sunday night beer league basketball when you just want to get home and check the scores of the football game

[GLF]

Davis is sooo bad. I knew this but tonight really solidified it. I haven't seen a player with as low of bball IQ as him in some time. Honestly. And then on top of that he's a mess defensively. Like VERY VERY bad. And a lot of it has to do with his lack of IQ. Yuta, Thomas and Stanley weren't good but I would still play one of those guys over Davis when healthy. They don't make nearly as much brain dead mistakes and other than Thomas they are all better than Davis on defence. Even Thomas is better than him on defence to be honest lol. He doesn't get lost as much as him. He just physically can't keep up with most guys. Davis doesn't have that excuse.

[S.R.]

That was like summer league but worse

[nba_4_life]

glad i didn't have internet to watch this game....

[Beans]

Gruesome to watch

[The Great One]

Another reason why Powell should be their #1 priority this offseason. 1. He's a legit 20ppg guy now. 2. He's got heart. 3. They don't have any replacement. Davis is really bad.