Despite the much-anticipated return to their starting lineup of Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, The Toronto Raptors lost their sixth consecutive match on Wednesday night in Detroit against the Pistons, 116–112.
The Raptors were hanging in there until the very end of it. as Norman Powell tried everything he could to keep his team afloat right to the end with some incredibly difficult go-ahead threes, but it was not enough to overcome a strong Detroit team outing.
The Pistons’ dub was largely thanks to their rookie Saddiq Bey, who tallied 28 points, including several clutch free throws down the stretch and six made buckets from beyond the arc. He was simply stellar tonight. Similarly to their last matchup just two weeks ago in Tampa, the entire Detroit team seemed to be catching fire against the Raptors once more. They shot over 50% from the field and upwards of 40% from 3-point land.
Jeremi Grant continued to make a case for Most Improved Player with 23 points including a tough jumper in isolation against Kyle Lowry with the clock winding down in the fourth quarter. Josh Jackson also played a major role off of the bench with 16 points on an impressive 62.5% efficiency.
Despite another tough nail-biting loss for the Raptors, it was without a shadow of a doubt an immense relief and pleasure for the entire roster and staff to see some familiar faces come back into the group. VanVleet extended his remarkable streak of having now scored at least one basket from deep in 67 consecutive games. He and Siakam, however, had trouble shaking off the rust and understandably so.
Norman Powell lit it up tonight with a career-high 43 points, on an astoundingly clinical 14/18 from the field (77.8%), including 8 threes. Chris Boucher was impressive as well and keeps improving his overall game. He started on Wednesday night and finished with 21 points on 10/16FG from the hardwood.
For Toronto, this is the first time since the Nick Nurse era began that they have lost six battles on the bounce. They travel back to Tampa later Wednesday night and will face off against the Utah Jazz on Friday at 08:00 pm EST., the team with the best record in the NBA.
Written by Thomas Debost
