Better enjoy this home game, because the next one won’t be until November 28th.
The Raptors couldn’t ask for a better way to get ready for their six game road trip beginning in Portland on Monday. Detroit (2-9) is coming off a 20 point loss to the Cavs on Friday, and have the worst record in the East once again. Obviously the Pistons are two years away from being two years away, but how bad has it been exactly? Welp…
The Pistons are shooting 39.6% this season, the worst by any team since 1960.
That’s more than SIXTY years ago. The Lakers were still in Minneapolis then.
They are also shooting 28.6% from three, the worst by any team in the last 20 seasons. pic.twitter.com/mTUWV2Cvln
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 13, 2021
Cade Cunningham
This will be our first look at this year’s first overall pick. Cade is averaging 12 points through his first six games, and is feeling his way back from an ankle injury that delayed the start of his pro career. His shooting numbers (30.5% from the field, 23.1 from three) are misleading. Cade went 7-39 in his first three games, but is shooting over 40 percent from both the field and three (on 6 attempts a game) over his last three. He hasn’t been asked to do a lot of playmaking yet, but then again nobody in the starting lineup really does that. Cory Joseph actually leads the team with 3.5 assists, and he comes off the bench. That explains the anemic offence a bit.
Dwane Casey
Detroit’s long winding future road to relevance has not stopped Casey from throwing the kitchen sink at the Raptors every time he sees them. Casey is 6-3 vs Toronto since being fired after the 2018 season. That includes Pistons season sweeps in the championship year and last season’s Tampa campaign. Those matchups last year especially came at disastrous timing – when Covid was ravishing the team and “play-in for what?” officially became the move. Detroit had more talent on their roster in the 2019 season (Blake Griffin’s last all-star year), but that sweep is still hard to understand. If Casey is able to pull anything similar off this year, then there is some true voodoo type ish going on here. Detroit doesn’t start anybody taller than 6-8 either so Nick Nurse should be free to start a small lineup again if he chooses to do so.
Game Info
Tip-Off: 7:30pm EST | TV: TSN 1/3/4 | Radio: TSN 1050
Pistons Lineup
Kelly Olynyk is out for at least the next six weeks with a MCL sprain in his left knee.
PG: Killian Hayes, Cory Joseph, Saben Lee
SG: Cade Cunningham, Frank Jackson, Rodney McGruder, Hamidou Diallo
SF: Saddiq Bey, Josh Jackson
PF: Jerami Grant, Trey Lyles, Jamorko Pickett
C: Isaiah Stewart, Luka Garza
Raptors Lineup
Yuta Watanabe (calf) remains out. Precious Achiuwa (shoulder) and Khem Birch (knee) are questionable. Pascal Siakam sat out the second leg of the back-to-back in Philly, but should be fine to play this game.
PG: Fred VanVleet, Dalano Banton, Malachi Flynn, Goran Dragic
SG: Gary Trent Jr, Svi Mykhailiuk
SF: Scottie Barnes, Justin Champagnie, Isaac Bonga
PF: OG Anunoby, Chris Boucher
C: Pascal Siakam, Khem Birch, Precious Achiuwa
The Line
Biggest pro-Raptor line of the season, Toronto by 8.5 points. Over/Under is 201.5. Finally took an L guessing these in the Philly preview so I’m now 4-1. I have to take the under because the Pistons only scored 78 points vs the Cavs on Friday, are on a back-to-back, and have a historically bad offence right now.
