<div align="center"> <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Toronto Raptors</font></font> (27-23) @ <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Detroit Pistons</font></font> (30-18) Venue: The Palace at Auburn Hills Date: Saturday February 10th, 2007 Time: 7:30 PM EST Coverage: The SCORE</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Chris Webber is a big reason the Detroit Pistons have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Led by their most recent addition, the Pistons (30-18) will try for a sixth straight win Saturday when they host Toronto Raptors in a matchup of division leaders. Though the Raptors (27-23) are 9-16 on the road and have lost their last six at The Palace of Auburn Hills, they will be trying for a season-high sixth straight win. Toronto leads the Atlantic Division by 3 1/2 games over second-place New Jersey. </div> <div align="center">Link</div> [DIV=50%] <div align="center"><font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> Chauncey Billups - Rip Hamilton - Tayshaun Prince - Chris Webber - Rasheed Wallace <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Lindsey Hunter - Flip Murray - Carlos Delfino - Jason Maxiell - Antonio McDyess - Nazr Mohammed <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Flip Saunders <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Injuries</font></font> None</div> [/DIV] <div align="center"><font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> TJ Ford - Anthony Parker - Jorge Garbajosa - Chris Bosh - Rasho Nesterovic <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Jose Calderon - Darrick Martin - Fred Jones - Joey Graham - Morris Peterson - Andrea Bargnani - Kris Humphries <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Sam Mitchell <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Injuries</font></font> <div align="center">None</div> <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Keys to the Game</font></font></div> Feed the Big Man Bosh's mix of athleticism and toughness has always allowed him to play well against Detroit. Neither Rasheed or Chris Webber has shown the ability to hold him down individually, and the Raptors will need to remember that. Towards the end of the Lakers game, Toronto began to neglect Chris and it almost lost them the game. They cannot repeat that mistake tonight. Crash the Boards Toronto's weakness this season has been rebounding and, since Detroit rebounds quite well (41.6/game), they will have to make a concerted effort to box out. Giving an efficient team like the Pistons several second chances could be deadly. <div align="center"><font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">X-Factor</font></font> </div> <div align="center">TJ Ford</div> Detroit likes to use a zone defense, and they may rely on it tonight to contain Chris Bosh. Luckily, Chris has made a regular habit of passing out of the double team. TJ Ford, however, as the starter, will need to get Toronto moving and find the open shooters. If he falls back to looking for his own shot and overdribbling, our offense will become too stagnant. <div align="center"><font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Prediction</font></font> Pistons win 91-87. <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Something to look at while you wait for the game</font></font> </div>
<div class="quote_poster">AirJordan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Our winning streak comes to an end here.</div> I hope.
This should be a tough game ... 2nd half of a back to back against a team we've never really matched up well against. If were going to win this we have to find a way to stay competitive rebounding with the pistons and keep the tempo of the game fast. My other concern this game is that Billups will abuse our smaller pg's and just go wild.
End of the 1st: neither team is really playing great basketball. At times both teams are doing a good job running their offense, but they later get away from that and just end up scrambling. Detroit seems to want to go at bosh in the post with Wallace, which right now seems like a pretty good idea. Can only imagine how tired bosh is getting after last night. I wish we'd try and expose Webber when we're on offense in the same manner. PG play has cooled down a fair amount. For the 2nd straight game neither Ford or Calderon is performing well out of the gate. Offensive sets look relatively similar. One thing I will note though is when Calderon struggles his backup plan seems to be to take the ball to the basket hard. TJ Ford doesn't seem to have something like that in his game where he can dig him self out. Other than that, I'd say I'm indifferent to who's playing right now.
Detroit's turning up the defensive intensity and its just confusing our players. They keep changing up the looks.
Sheed picks up a technical fould, Parker makes the free throw. Bargnani with a huge 3! 87-85 Raptors with 4 minutes to play.
The refs handed the Pistons this game on a silver platter. They whined and whined all game over every call and it worked, because in the 4th they got every call.
3 things pissed me off about this game: - our piss-poor rebounding - Rasheed Wallace's incessant b!tching - Chauncey Billups' calls That was a frustrating game to watch.
<div class="quote_poster">XSV Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The refs handed the Pistons this game on a silver platter. They whined and whined all game over every call and it worked, because in the 4th they got every call.</div> No they made key shots and stops in the final 4 minutes. You know thats what very good teams do. The fact that Sheed took over the game decided It. Toronto should be proud that they managed to stay close.
Well the reffing sucked but I don't think it handed them the game in any way. If we're going to bitch about the 4th quarter we have to remember back to the first when both Wallace and Billups ended up with 2 fouls on some interesting calls. Detroit won because they established Wallace in the post and spread the floor for their shooters. We had no answer and just got beat the same way through the whole game. I'd like to know why the hell were we tying to put bosh in the low post when Detroit was constantly doubling??? High post ... exposes the defense and it makes it easier for Bosh to pass out of the double. Anyways label me the Mitchell hater that I am but I'll make a strong case that the rotation tonight sucked. Riding guys 40 minutes on the 2nd game of a back to back, Graham with 6 minutes, Rasho with 15, not solid. This is a game we expect to lose so we might as well shake it off. We kept it close for the most part and came up a little short at the end. It's frustrating that our execution was so terrible though.
<div class="quote_poster">AllNet Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No they made key shots and stops in the final 4 minutes. You know thats what very good teams do. The fact that Sheed took over the game decided It. Toronto should be proud that they managed to stay close.</div> If you're going to talk about Wade getting all the calls, then you have to concede the fact that the Pistons had the calls going their way this game. It goes both ways man, and it just goes to show that people will turn a blind eye when its their team getting the benefit. I give credit to the Pistons D on shutting down Bosh, but it probably affected his will to drive when every time he went to the bucket he receivced lots of contact but no whistle. What I like about Bosh though, is that he never once complained. Wallace on the other hand, clearly commits an offensive foul on Bargs and never stops bitching about it.
Yea, I'm definitely not saying we lost the game due to refereeing. But, Rasheed Wallace just plain annoys me. Dude deserved like 3 technical fouls through the course of the game. And Chauncey Billups getting the Kobe/Lebron/Wade treatment in the 4th quarter was kind of frustrating. That said, we didn't execute very well down the stretch. Defensively, we just played terrible. It seemed like we couldn't defend any of their starters without doubling them, and you can't double a team with so many offensive weapons. Nobody really stepped up on the offensive end. I actually think Bargnani was the most productive player, but that's not saying much.
<div class="quote_poster">XSV Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">If you're going to talk about Wade getting all the calls, then you have to concede the fact that the Pistons had the calls going their way this game. It goes both ways man, and it just goes to show that people will turn a blind eye when its their team getting the benefit. I give credit to the Pistons D on shutting down Bosh, but it probably affected his will to drive when every time he went to the bucket he receivced lots of contact but no whistle. What I like about Bosh though, is that he never once complained. Wallace on the other hand, clearly commits an offensive foul on Bargs and never stops bitching about it.</div> There bad calls BOTH WAYS tonight. Raptors also had 6 more free-throws than the Pistons in this game. There were plenty of no calls that the Pistons failed to get. Raptors had a few bad calls but over the course of the game It evened It's self out by the end of the game. So you certainly can't go blaming this loss on the refs when they were equally bad both sides. Wade getting calls and what happened tonight is something totally different. It's not even comparable.
Wow. Bosh played like a p*ss tonight. There was one play that stood out to me int he fourth quarter where Sheed was playing tight as hell and Bosh took a dribble, dribble back and took a jumper. In any other game Bosh would take it straight to the rack for the dunk or the foul. That said, Sheed brought his A game and took it to Bosh and held him in check, but we made no effort to drive except for our points, and Bosh was floating around all day.
<div class="quote_poster">XSV Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">If you're going to talk about Wade getting all the calls, then you have to concede the fact that the Pistons had the calls going their way this game.</div> What the hell are you talking about? I agree with AllNet, we should be happy we even managed to stay in this game after playing yesterday and managing to almost win this against the best team in the east with a lot of momentum. I expect us to lose the game against Chicago but bounce back before the All Star break.
