Quick Reaction: Pistons 113, Raptors 95

Not a great night for the bench tonight, and while Mamukelashvili normally is able to bail them out, he couldn’t find the bottom of the bucket enough. Still he didn’t harm the team defensively and after the heater he’s been on a little regression is to be expected

The lone bright spot in the Raptors’ first quarter. He had two monster dunks, and was able to get two feet in the paint to create open shots for his teammates. He picked up his third foul towards the end of the opening frame. In the second he picked up his interior defense, blocking Ausar Thompson and Duncan Robinson while getting to the free throw line on the other end. In the third he inexplicably went away from the aggressive pursuit of the basket that got him going early, and to the detriment of the team, focused on playmaking instead. There are times offensively where he just seems disinterested, which is a shame because the pressure he applies when he’s attacking with force is unmatched.

Early on, Quickley had more luck getting his teammates involved rather than himself. He assisted the first two baskets of the second quarter by finding a curling Walter for a three and the Poeltl for a layup. Though he missed his first few shots he eventually got on the board himself after banking an above-the-break triple. From that point on he drained two more threes and nailed a baseline push shot to get to 11 in the first half. In the latter half of the game he made another three, nailed a floater, and ran the pick n’ roll with Poeltl to some success. I imagine there aren’t too many players more happy than Quick to have the big man back.

Ingram wasn’t particularly aggressive in his shot-hunting tonight, but when he did look to score he was getting buckets. Give credit to the Pistons, who double-teamed him early and often to keep him from impacting the game. He also got into a bit of foul trouble midway through the third quarter that limited him. Still, when he’s being doubled he has to be better at turning that into advantages for his teammates, zero assists can’t happen. Also don’t love to see him take only two threes, it limits the floor spacing when he isn’t pulling from deep.

Barrett has been excellent at getting to the free throw line, and continued to throw up fakes in the paint to get there tonight. His efficiency was top-notch, scoring 16 points on 94% true shooting. Not much to complain about except for the same complaint I have for the entire team, the defense needs to be better.

In his first game in over seven weeks, Poeltl appeared healthier than he was early in the season but still not 100%. Hopefully it’s just a ramp-up to get all the way back. Regardless his screen-setting helped the Raptors offensively but his defense left much to be desired. Though to be fair it’s difficult to come back against a smaller, mobile big man in Paul Reed who torched the Raptors for 18 points in the first half. Poeltl picked up his scoring with a couple of layups in the third but was easily beat by Reed on a drive from the top of the arc. Still, very glad to see him on the court and hopefully the All-Star break helps him recover further.

He got a bit of run early but after he proved unable to stop Reed either he wasn’t seen again until garbage time. Not much to judge here.

Dick hit a couple of threes in the third quarter to keep things within 20 which is good I suppose but I’m still frustrated with his aversion to contact on drives. He loves to try and finesse these little up and under reverse layups when there’s a shot blocker instead of powering through the contact.

Shead was really bad tonight. He missed every shot he took and his timing was off on passes leading to four turnovers. Even defensively he had almost no impact as Cunningham picked apart any defender the Raptors threw at him.

Outside of hitting a three and throwing a nice alley-oop pass to Barnes early in the game, Walter wasn’t impactful. He tipped an offensive rebound that led to a Dick three, but he also missed his other two threes. Forgettable night for the entire bench.

Garbage time.

Garbage time.

He had to deal with foul trouble for Barnes, which challenged things, but I really didn’t like the approach tonight. I think bringing Poeltl off the bench would have been a better way of settling him in, and it would have provided a better matchup for Reed in the opening quarter. The bench also had nothing going tonight, why not throw Jamison Battle or Alijah Martin out there? They can’t possibly do worse than Shead, Dick, or Walter did tonight. Against the top teams in the league, the Raptors rarely match the necessary intensity to win. While it’s not entirely on coach Darko to motivate them, he needs to hold them accountable.