Ivey’s stellar play lifts a Detroit team that was struggling to execute
One thing was for certain: the Detroit Pistons were not going to let an offense rebound dictate the outcome of this game. With the score tied at 100 and the clock sitting at 22 seconds, the Pistons gave Jaden Ivey the ball and asked him to win the game. Ivey obliged by hitting a an off-ballance baseline push shot over Ochai Agbaji to give the Pistons the 102-100 win over the Toronto Raptors .
Ivey was the clear star of the game for Detroit. Starting at point guard for the sidelined Cade Cunningham, Ivey scored 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting and dished eight assists. He played smart basketball under control and was the only reason Detroit was in the game to begin with.
After hitting shots early and taking a quick 14-point lead, the Pistons offense abandoned them, and their defensive and rebounding deficiencies were on clear display. Toronto was able to snake past defenders and get second-chance opportunities as the defense struggled to rotate, box out and snare long rebounds.
The game was mostly back-and-forth in the second half with the Pistons spending most of that time trailing anywhere from one to six points. Never too far away but not really able to get over the hump. In truth, among two struggling offenses — Detroit hit 44% from the floor and 32% from deep compared to 39% and 28% for Toronto — the Pistons probably out-executed the Raptors by a hair. But it doesn’t matter if you can’t hit your first shot when you get three to four attempts so many times down the floor.
Toronto saw 25 of its 100 points come as second-chance points. I can’t remember a time when a team saw a full quarter of their offensive output come via second-chance points, but I saw it tonight. The Raptors had a 23 to 6 offensive rebound advantage. It was repulsive to watch as a Pistons fan.
Detroit, simply, is a pretty small team, and that gets exacerbated when you’re facing a range long-limbed team like Toronto who entered tonight as the NBA’s best offensive rebounding team. Missing Cade Cunningham doesn’t make it any easier as it meant the Pistons were starting Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. on the wings. That’s great if those two veterans are scorching from distance. Tonight, the duo combined to shoot 5-of-19 from deep, mostly courtesy of a horrid 3-of-14 night from Beasley.
The good news for Detroit is, well, the Raptors are not a very good team. Scottie Barnes was the best player on either team with 31 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. The other Raps subsided on putbacks and some timely threes. The second piece of good news for the Pistons is that when they want to, they can defend.
It was a relief to see JB Bickerstaff mostly lean into a defensive lineup in crunch time with both Isaiah Stewart and Ausar Thompson on the floor. It was Ausar’s first NBA action since last March after battling a blood clot issue. Ausar played 16 minutes in total. His first NBA bucket of the season? A corner three, of course. Hey, the shot looked pretty clean.
His second of two baskets was more consequential. Stewart contested a Barnes driving layup and pushed the ball up the floor to Ausar who was able to make a running layup in transition on the other end. The score gave Detroit its first lead since 67-65 with just under 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
RJ Barrett was able to answer with a 3 on the other end, but Stewart had a another solid contest of a Davion Mitchell layup attempt. The Pistons again pushed the ball and found a driving Ivey, who was able to knife into the lane and tie the score at 98.
The Pistons were again able to deny the Raptors attempting to score at the rim on the next possession down the floor and in a scrum, the Detroit was able to find Malik Beasley who pushed the ball and found Beef Stew who had snuck beyond the defense for a running layup to put Detroit up 100-98.
Scottie Barnes took the ball right to Tobias Harris on the ensuing possession and use his strength and length to muscle up a clean look at the rim to tied the score at 100. That left 22 seconds for Ivey to work his magic.
It was a fitting end for Ivey, who deserves good things to happen after the great start to this season he’s had and the season he survived last year. Detroit has plenty of issues to clean up. Beating a four-win Toronto team who has yet to win on the road at all this season is no panacea. But a win is a win and Detroit needed one after losing three straight.
Detroit’s eighth win of the season means the team could lose its next 31 games and still be ahead of last season’s pace.