Ex-Raptors Charlie Villanueva and Tracy McGrady did a number on their former team to help lead the Detroit Pistons to a 115-93 win.
The pair combined for 35 points.
But it was McGrady, in particular, who really came to the fore, playing with a swagger despite the constant rain of boos from the stands.
In 24 minutes, McGrady scored 17 points and picked up seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
He also threw another former Raptor under the bus when it was suggested that most of the fans who boo him at the ACC really don’t know why they’re booing. He played the Raptors for three seasons from 1997-2000 before being sent to the Orlando Magic in a sign-and-trade deal.
“They don’t. I’m telling you, they really don’t,” he said. “It’s not like I was like Chris Bosh in selling out the city — like the city was horrible or something … making crazy comments about the city.
“(In 2000), it was Toronto or going back home to Orlando. That’s pretty much it. I love the city. Everytime I come back, I really enjoy my time here.”
McGrady said the booing spurs him on.
“Keep booing,” he said. “I love it.”
Rip Hamilton led the way with a season-best 35 points for the 10-19 Pistons. Leandro Barbosa had 21 and Linas Kleiza added 19 for the 10-19 Raptors.
The Raptors have now dropped eight of their past 10 games.
Just like at the earlier meeting at the Palace of Auburn Hills, turnovers were the reason the Raptors fell down big.
After turning it over 14 times in the first half in Detroit (to one Detroit turnover), the Raptors managed to do it again, leading to 21 Pistons points as the team built a 62-44 lead through two. The Pistons outscored Toronto 38-19 in the second quarter.
The final damage was a season-worst 24 turnovers for the Raptors and just eight for Detroit.
Raptors head coach Jay Triano implied that selfishness helped contribute to many of the mistakes on offence.
“We have to move the basketball, we can’t do things individually,” Triano said.
Detroit star Ben Wallace, playing in the 1,000th career game of his remarkable career, had six rebounds and three blocked shots.
Wallace said the debacle in Detroit was fresh on the team’s mind.
“We remember what happened last time at the Palace. We haven’t forgotten,” Wallace said.
With backup Jerryd Bayless — who blitzed the Pistons for 31 points in the Miracle at the Palace — unavailable, the usually reliable Jose Calderon had only Leandro Barbosa available to give him a rest. Calderon, who has been playing through a foot injury, had nine assists at the half, but shot just 1-for-5 and committed five turnovers. Calderon finished with a career-worst eight turnovers.
Triano said playing with a depleted roster was difficult, especially with Calderon and Andrea Bargnani struggling.
“Our best players are banged up a little bit, Jose and Andrea and they both had horrible games,” Triano said.
While it is true that a handful of key Raptors were not available and others were hobbled to varying degrees, there still wasn’t enough determination on display to make anyone connected with the team feel particularly good.
“A lot of people are frustrated right now and we’ve got time over the break to think about it and come back ready,” said DeMar DeRozan.
The Raptors committed a season-high 24 turnovers that led to 41 Detroit points; they took a season-low 67 shots from the field because they played at a snail’s pace; their best players turned in bad games and they really had no chance to win.
“That’s not news that we have a lot of guys out and a lot of guys hurt but our best players have been banged up as well, Jose (Calderon) and Andrea (Bargnani), and they both had horrible games,” said coach Jay Triano.
“If you’re going to win with a depleted lineup, then your two other guys have to step up and neither one of those guys had very good games and I know Andrea’s been hurt and is still hurt and Jose’s hurt, too.
“Credit those guys for trying to play and help their team but we didn’t play very well and your best guys have to play well.”
Calderon, still bothered a bit by a sore foot, committed a career-high eight turnovers in 37 minutes and scored just five points.
Bargnani, who has a sore knee, a wonky ankle and a strained calf that had him on the bench for a chunk of the third quarter, missed 11 of 17 shots and managed just 16 points with two rebounds.
Toronto trailed by only one point after 12 minutes, led by efficient shooting from DeRozan (8) and Linas Kleiza (6).
Then came a dismal second quarter.
Despite a respectable shooting average (Toronto surfed around 53 per cent most of the game), Toronto helped Detroit surge to an 18-point lead with a ream of sloppy turnovers: 14 compared to Detroit’s five.
The turnovers continued and Toronto finished with 24 — eight by point guard Jose Calderon. DeRozan said Toronto mostly beat themselves on that front.
“I think a lot of turnovers is on us. Sometimes being selfish, should’ve given the ball up earlier, and hopefully got it back. You know, we tried to do too much.”
Meantime, Toronto fans didn’t do their team any favours by booing former Raptor Tracy McGrady. He went on a tear to help the Pistons pull away by the half, adding 15 points on 8-for-9 shooting in 13 minutes.
Calderon’s game went south long before Amir Johnson pulled up lame late in the first half, his pregame treatments for back spasms not effective. Or before Andrea Bargnani strained his left calf muscle midway through the third quarter, then left for good in the fourth. There would be no franchise-record 25-point comeback on this night as there was the last time these teams played, because the Raptors had only eight and a half men (give or take a Joey Dorsey) and even against a club like the Pistons – beset by the type of internal strife that naturally results when a player such as Richard Hamilton gets accused sotto voce of pulling the chute on his team – it was not enough.
At least we didn’t get waffles. In fact, the 15,303 who were at the Air Canada Centre – many of whom were doubtless among the mean-spirited who rocked the Raptors with boos on Nov. 28 when the Atlanta Hawks took advantage of mismatches galore – were remarkably quiet when the Raptors sneaked off the court at the half, losing 62-44. Perhaps it was DeMar DeRozan wishing them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year before the game (isn’t that usually done by the next player to leave town?) DeRozan followed that up with a rim-shattering dunk and then – poof – disappeared into the night. Games like this called for a statement from DeRozan. Instead, he delivered a question mark.
Or perhaps given what’s gone on with the other local team it is the realization that – yep – this is what rebuilding is. Real “we are going to stink on some nights” rebuilding.
Even though many people might have forgotten that Tracy McGrady once spurned the Raptors in free agency in 2000, the former scoring champion heard boos when he checked into the game for the Pistons in the second quarter.
McGrady, as he used to do regularly in Toronto, thrived on the attention. Despite being more or less finished as a game-defining star in the NBA, McGrady scored 15 points in the second quarter alone. It was vintage McGrady: He had his smooth, if oddly linear, jumper going, he attacked to the rim for an easy layup, and even talked back at a heckling fan after hitting a shot.
McGrady finished with season highs in points (17), assists (seven) and rebounds (seven). The Raptors, and not their fans with long memories, had a lot to do with it.
“Keep booing me. I love it. It really doesn’t bother me at all,” McGrady said. “It’s not like I was like Chris Bosh and selling out the city like the city was horrible or something, making crazy comments about the city.”
That is not the note that the Raptors, or the fans, wanted to go into the break on.
I hope Hamilton can outwardly enjoy basketball again, but Hamilton On A Mission works right now. Hamilton On A Mission is the persona Rip needed to adapt now, and it’s the persona the Pistons need him to adapt now.
- HOAM scored 35 points – more than any reserve has scored this season.*
- HOAM deferred to Tracy McGrady at the right times.
- HOAM sparked a 115-93 victory over the Raptors.
*Topping Ben Gordon’s mark of 32 against the Thunder
Those first two bullets really exemplify what’s great about HOAM.* He’s not on a mission to prove he can still produce. He’s on a mission to prove he can still produce enough to lead the Pistons to wins. Hamilton has forced too many shots this season, but he didn’t do that tonight. That might help him pad his numbers, but it won’t help the Pistons win, and HOAM was only interested in doing things that helped himself and the team.
*Not that the third isn’t important, but the Raptors played as poorly as I’ve seen a team play this season.
On Dec. 11, the Pistons held a 25-point lead in the third quarter, only to eventually lose to the Raptors, 120-116, at the Palace.
Hamilton made sure that didn’t happen again. He entered the game with under a minute to play in the first quarter and made his first shot — a three-pointer — with 27 seconds left in the quarter.
“It was on my mind,” Villanueva said of that 120-116 home loss Dec. 11, the biggest turnaround in Raptors history. “I circled this day because we threw away the game up in Detroit. Guys played a complete, full game of basketball. We just kept putting our foot on the gas pedal.”
