Pistons turn Poeltl’s triumphant return for Raptors into a tragedy

It turns out there are tiers to professionalism. At the bottom is the high schooler in the last month before summer break. Above that somewhere are the Toronto Raptors. Above them is Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. And somewhere above him sit the Detroit Pistons. 

The Raptors have marched through this season somewhat like a metronome. 1-2-3 2-2-3 3-2-3, etc. But with some missteps, to be sure. The Pistons don’t really make missteps. They showed the Raptors what a full 48-minute effort looks like, even without their starting center or his backup. And the Raptors, finally close to full health for the first time in months, once again saw how much further up the mountain they’ll have to climb to accomplish their goals.

Against the top 10 teams in point differential, the Raptors are now 4-11, with a bottom-10 offensive and defensive ranking. The Raptors have slapped the bottom-10 (13-4) and even the middle-10 teams (15-8), but they can’t seem to beat the best. 

The Pistons showed the Raptors just what those best look like.

Though the loss may have seemed just one in a string of losses to the league’s best, there were lessons. It seems clear, if a one-game sample is to be believed, that Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles are better big defenders, at least in Toronto’s system, than Jakob Poeltl and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Poeltl’s presence will massively help the offence. His abilities to create contact on screens, create passing windows on the roll, and create bucks when the ball touches his hands in the paint are all massively valuable. But Toronto has built an identity on defence, and it is predicated on rapidity. 

Poeltl may not fit perfectly there any longer, especially not in his first minutes returning from a long-term back injury. Early on, Paul Reed shredded him. Reed hit a triple as Poeltl was late closing out, rolled into the lane for a lob dunk, boogied his way to 16 first-quarter points on perfect shooting. It didn’t help that Toronto struggled to clean its defensive glass despite having its true 7-footer back. He himself didn’t grab his first rebound until four minutes into the second quarter. And Poeltl was helpful offensively, rolling to the rim for a layup after screening for RJ Barrett, cutting to the lane after setting a flare screen for Brandon Ingram. But the defence lost its hinges without activity at the center spot. 

Toronto scrounged its way to a few transition points, particularly as Barnes and Ja’Kobe Walter dug into the ball at the half-court line multiple times for steals. But with Detroit’s half-court defence locking onto Toronto’s defence like a Rottweiler, the Raptors’ defensive miscues were death early on. 

Gasping for air, points — from any source — were a desperate need for Toronto. Jamal Shead and Gradey Dick found their way to open triples early. All missed. The Raptors found a brief spark of life with Barnes playing alongside Sandro Mamukelashvili, but three first-quarter fouls on Barnes quickly put that to bed. 

Darko Rajakovic didn’t give up on Barnes in the first half, though. He didn’t want to let the game get out of hand and save Barnes for a second half that may not have even been competitive anyway. Barnes played the final six minutes, and despite playing alongside a natural front-court partner in Mamukelashvili, Toronto couldn’t rekindle the spark. The Pistons outrebounded the Raptors, and Barnes even failed to recognize a dwindling shot clock and committed a 24-second violation by passing when he needed to shoot. Walter flubbed the ball away with some sloppy turnovers. 

The Pistons were just too forceful and too consistent for Toronto to keep pace. Even a mini run to close the half as Barrett and Quickley slung in some points couldn’t bring Toronto closer, as Cade Cunningham was a virtuoso on the other end. He controlled every possession, no matter Toronto’s defensive big, and created virtually uncontested looks for Detroit whenever he so chose. It was only a cherry on top that Cunningham splashed pull-up triple after pull-up triple out of pick and roll, torching Toronto’s coverages despite not usually being a strong 3-point shooter.

Barnes did his best. He defended Cunningham exceptionally well, and he collected steals and blocks like candy on Halloween, but fouls kept him somewhat on the outside of the flow of the game. He passed well. But with Detroit’s physicality really slowing Toronto’s actions, pushing the Raptors deep into the clock, blunting drives before they reached the paint, Barnes was left searching for easy points. Regardless, as long as Barnes was on the court, the Raptors had a punching chance.

But they crumbled in his minutes on the bench. 

The Raptors, so accustomed to teams not bothering to challenge their jumpers, found the Pistons flying towards them at all times. Shots that are usually open turned into rushed looks. What are usually straight up-and-down jumpers turned into side-steps, or deferred shots that ended up in reset offence. Drives turned to floaters, and floaters were erased. The Pistons’ defence was good. And the Raptors’ defence, which is pretty darn good itself, wasn’t able to keep pace. It wasn’t quite as snarling, as toothy, as gripping. 

Shead especially struggled with Detroit’s increased physicality and attention to details. Shead usually thrives with his home-run passing, but more of his passes resulted in turnovers than assists. He tied a season-high in turnovers with four. Everyone on Toronto’s bench struggled to score, but much of it flowed from Shead’s inability to create offence for his cohorts. Late in the third quarter, Shead ran a pick and roll and got off it far too early, which is unlike him. Perhaps we was fearing a turnover. But he found a well-guarded Dick above the break. Dick drove, but his handle is far too loose to survive against this defence, especially when it’s set and ready, and he promptly got stripped. 

The lead swelled to 20 with Barnes on the bench. He entered in the fourth, and Toronto promptly made a brief push. Ingram hit a post-up fadeaway. Quickley drove for a floater. Barnes bullied a mismatch in the paint for a deep catch and easy and-1. But the Pistons always had an answer, and the Raptors’ initiators always found their way to a turnover to drop a barrel on the toes of their own momentum.

Yes, the Raptors were outshot. Yes, fouls took their star out of the game for significant stretches. But mostly, they were outplayed. The Raptors just haven’t been good enough against the league’s best, and the Pistons are only one more mark in a pattern of such domination. The Raptors have firmly settled into the confines of the league’s middle class. Comfortable. But there is a ceiling to their success this season. And with Toronto’s schedule turning yet more difficult after the All-Star break, Barnes and company will need to find a way to punch through that ceiling if they’re going to compete with teams like the Pistons.

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