-The Toronto Raptors didn't just lose to the Detroit Pistons. They lost every way possible.
-On the scoreboard, the end result was a 21 point loss as the Pistons ran up the score early and never looked back in their 105 to 86 win. However that was only half the story in terms of tonight's "loss."
-With about four minutes left in the half, Jose Calderon went down clutching his ankle. Based on replays it appeared that Jose stepped on the foot of Detroit guard Brandon Knight, causing a sprain and while X Rays were later negative, it didn't look good. My guess would be that Jose's now on the shelf for at least a week and likely more, not a good thing considering his importance to this club...
...not to mention the Raps recently decided to let back-up PG Anthony Carter go and search for greener pastures.
-Yet even a healthy Jose would have done little to stem the tide in this one. Toronto shot a shade under 40 per cent for the game all the while allowing 51 per cent shooting for Detroit. The Raps were consistently out-hustled, out-rebounded and considering they were down by 31 at one point, it's a miracle the final score was as close as it was.
-What about Andrea? Well yes, Andrea Bargnani returned, but since nothing else was going right on this evening, why should his return to action? While I think we all expected some rust, I don't think anyone expected to see the re-emergence of the 2009 Andrea. He played 19 minutes but hit only 2 of 8 shots, grabbed three rebounds and was horrific on D.
-Toronto is just going to have to put this one behind them as "one of those games" now, and hope the club pretends they never set foot inside the Palace tonight. Aside from maybe some minutes for Gary Forbes, there wasn't a single positive to be taken from this one and while the Pistons indeed have been playing some great basketball, Toronto gave them whatever they wanted offensively on the night. We'll see how the Dinos fare now in 24 hours against the Bucks.