NBA preseason is almost over, but Toronto Raptors return home for their first and only preseason game in Toronto versus Detroit Pistons. The Pistons gave their best until the end of the game but came short resulting in a loss to Raptors with final score 116 to 94 on Tuesday. There’s no doubt that Raptors had an incredible game with the team’s averaging 51.9% in field goals, 35.1% in three-point shooting, 15 turnovers, and 44 rebounds.
Toronto Raptors took advantage of the Pistons being on a back-to-back game, advancing with a 10-point lead at halftime and cruising in the second half to a 116-94 blowout.
Ish Smith led the Detroit Pistons with a score of 22 points followed by Langston Galloway with 16 points but aren’t enough to defeat the Raptors with CJ Miles leading the Raptors with 19 points backed up by an excellent game of Jonas Valanciunas with 18 points. Serge Ibaka added 14 points, DeMar DeMar finished with 13 points, Jakob Poeltl also added 12 points and Delon Wright and Fred Van Vleet had 10 points each.
Valanciunas excellent game
Valanciunas missed on the three-point point attempt, but got the better of Drummond a couple of minutes later, muscling past the Pistons center for a basket on a solid night for the Lithuanian.
The 25-year-old Valanciunas showed up in the best shape of his career with 18 points and 11 rebounds with 22 minutes game time lifting Raptors to a 116-94 pre-season victory against Pistons.
He has been written off by many last seasons as being left out by the NBA's trend toward an up-tempo, three-point shooting lead. According to Coach Dwayne Casey, “Jonas is not a finished product by any means. He’s made huge strides over the last couple of years and he’s got some more strides to go.”
Rookie OG Anunoby
The 20-year-old rookie player, OG Anunoby, made his first game in Raptors.
He scored two points and three assists in 18 minutes duration in the game. He was selected 23rd overall in the draft, had made an appearance in the Raptors’ open scrimmage in training camp in Victoria, but he’s on the mend from the torn ACL that cut short his sophomore season at Indiana last January and had sat for Toronto’s three previous pre-season games.
Pistons’ engine Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson is busted
The fans just confirmed their fears with the team’s engine, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. Jackson and Drummond were not very effective during the game. Reggie finished the game with a score of six points on a 3-8 shooting, two assists, and two turnovers. He was not also effective in any part of the game.
Meanwhile, Andre Drummond finished the game with 14 points with little effort and poor decision making on defense. He wasn’t also engaged on the offensive either. It only took one preseason game for the big man to lose interest in playing hard after his big talk before the preseason. These are already existing issues with his previous games but it was very much displayed in this game with Pistons.
