The internship at the Pistons’ corner office

The Raptors put their feet up on the Pistons’ corner office desk at Scotiabank Arena. Last night, they learned they were only interns, posing as C-Suite execs.

Since their win against the Pistons, the Raptors have been 4-3. They won games they should’ve won, lost against better teams, and came into last night with a blowout victory over the Magic. The Raptors set a record for the highest-scoring unanswered run – 31-0.

But the Pistons reminded the Raptors who they were, reciprocating what was done to them at Scotiabank. Last night, Detroit asserted themselves in the third quarter, winning 41-27, as the Raptors had similarly done before. Detroit allowed Toronto’s bench to go on a faux comeback run in the fourth, just as Toronto allowed Detroit to go on a 7-0 run late in the fourth two games ago.

The Pistons’ three-level scoring – Jalen Duren’s 31 points and 13-23 (57%) 3-point shooting (Duncan Robinson making five of those – screamed “Put that coffee down!” The Pistons returned from their business trip, kicked the Raptors feet off its desk, and pointed to its MBA degree from Ann Arbor.

Poeltl, who had 21 and 18 last game, was a shell of himself – though he vindicated himself after a poor first quarter. Scottie scored whenever the team needed him in their home win, but barely found the bottom of the net last night. Even though his primary role was facilitator, one point at half was pretty atrocious. BI had 22 points, but struggled against the Pistons’ physicality. 

The silver lining was that the Raptors were far from being overconfident, lowly interns. In the first half, the aggressive blitzes were working, even if it led to some easy and demoralizing dunks. The Raptors were 23-7 in points off turnovers. 

RJ Barrett imposed his will and got to the charity stripe eight times in the first half. The Pistons had only got there nine times. CMB was the band-aid solution to Poeltl’s awful start, especially grabbing a zillion offensive rebounds to help keep the possession alive.

Admittedly, when the Pistons’ lead ballooned to 23 in the third quarter, I was a little checked out. Surely, the East’s best team won’t let go of a lead, I thought.

Then, Mamu, who had 12 points in the fourth, forced a Pistons timeout. His triple put the game within 10 points with less than four minutes left. A.J. Lawson’s two 3s earlier in the frame – he shot a perfect 3-3 from downtown – contributed to that faux comeback. 

The Raptors bench, along with starter Ja’Kobe Walter, got some valuable playoff reps in – at times, feeling the grinding, slower pace of it – against a title contender. Two other significant games remain against the Celtics and Knicks for the Raptors to test who they truly are.   

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