National Basketball Association

Grading the Pistons 109-91 loss against the Toronto Raptors

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Detroit Pistons lost their star center Andre Drummond three minutes into the game to foul trouble and they never quite recovered. Despite a second quarter surge, the Pistons trailed by 12 at halftime after the Toronto Raptors finished the half on a 9-0 run. DeMar DeRozan made everything in the 3rd quarter, and the Pistons lost 109-91 on a night where no one outside of Marcus Morris was especially good.

DetroitPistons91

TorontoRaptors109

Ish Smith

PG, Detroit Pistons

C+Ish Smith took good care of the ball, tallying 7 assists and no turnovers. But he was extremely inefficient, shooting just 3-for-10 from the field. His poor shot selection and defense was an issue all night for a Pistons team which needed a spark offensively.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

SG, Detroit Pistons

D+Kentavious Caldwell-Pope struggled mightily offensively, scoring just 4 points on 9 shots. He never quite got into a rhythm offensively. Caldwell-Pope wasn’t very effective defensively either, evidenced by DeRozan’s 40 point game.

Marcus Morris

SF, Detroit Pistons

A-Marcus Morris wasn’t very efficient offensively, but he did score 17 points and dish out 3 assists. On a night where offense was difficult to come by, Morris shouldered a large ball-handling role and did fairly well in the process. If not for Morris’s hard work offensively, things would have been even worse for the Pistons.

Tobias Harris

PF, Detroit Pistons

B-Tobias Harris gets some credit for being the Pistons’ leading scorer, but he didn’t look nearly as effective on the floor as he did in the box score. Harris scored 22 points on 13 shot, but he rarely passed the ball and it led to stagnant offense for the Pistons at times. Harris’s lack of passing played right into the Raptors’ scheme, leading to 5 turnovers. Harris was -21, the worst among all Pistons tonight.

Andre Drummond

C, Detroit Pistons

CAndre Drummond played only 24 minutes, in part, due to early foul trouble. Drummond’s foul trouble was mostly a product of his lazy defense on numerous possessions. He made some nice plays on offense, but he wasn’t able to have the impact on the game the Pistons needed because of his foul trouble.

Stanley Johnson

SF, Detroit Pistons

C-Stanley Johnson played just 14 minutes, so it was a bit difficult for him to get in much of a rhythm. The result wasn’t positive; Johnson played a bit out of control offensively, leading to a 1-of-4 shooting night. Defensively, he was beaten several times by simply overplaying his defender.

Aaron Baynes

C, Detroit Pistons

C-Aron Baynes was thrown into the game much earlier than he expected to be because of Drummond’s foul trouble and the results weren’t good. Baynes really struggled to defend Jonas Valanciunas and he got into foul trouble of his own. The Pistons struggled to rebound the ball with Baynes on the court, a big reason they got out-rebounded by 11 on the night.

Beno Udrih

PG, Detroit Pistons

BBeno Udrih jumped right in and played like a veteran in his first game as a Piston. Udrih did a nice job directing the offense but couldn’t quite find his shooting touch, making only 1-of-5 attempts from the field. Defensively, Udrih was perhaps the only Piston who found any success defending DeRozan.

Jon Leuer

PF, Detroit Pistons

CJon Leuer looked lost in the first half, but recovered nicely, scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. But, while his numbers ended up being decent, Leuer looked a step slow on both ends of the floor. The Pistons were -12 with Leuer on the floor, as a result.

Boban Marjanovic

C, Detroit Pistons

C+Boban Marjanovic was forced into play due to foul trouble, and he held his own during his time on the floor. Marjanovic played some good defense, but his slow foot speed got him in trouble a few times. Marjanovic was neutralized on the boards, grabbing only 1 rebound in his 5 minutes.

Stan Van Gundy

Head Coach, Detroit Pistons

CStan Van Gundy had to adjust his rotations a bit with his centers constantly in foul trouble, so his performance on Opening Night is a bit difficult to grade. Ultimately, the Pistons did too much ball watching offensively and Van Gundy didn’t do enough to correct it. He also should have given Beno Udrih more minutes on a night where the offense struggled to create open looks.