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Monday featured another close-call finish for the Detroit Pistons in their 102-100 victory against the Toronto Raptors. After an intense back-and-forth battle, the Pistons leaned on their starting combo guard Jaden Ivey, to seal the deal. Ivey was called on with 22 seconds left in the game knocking down a floating layup defeating the Raptors for the Pistons' eighth regular season win. Ivey spoke on how the final play was drawn up and executed for Detroit.
“Coach was drawing up the play, told me I was going to come up, get the ball, do a flat action, and then from there on we wanted to take the last shot,” Ivey explained in the postgame presser. “Before I even did the play, I was just talking to Jesus man, I’m like, Lord, just do something special. And he delivered. Gave the instructions to go out there, execute the last play, and then we won the game. It was exciting. Great feeling.”
Ivey led Detroit with 25 points on 10-13 shooting from the field. He was impactful as the primary ball-handler in the absence of injured guard Cade Cunningham. Ivey dished out eight assists to keep his teammates involved.
The Pistons battled through adversity in Monday night's contest versus the Raptors. Detroit let an early 15-point lead crumble and even surrendered 23 offensive rebounds to Toronto. They managed to keep the game close, allowing the Pistons' guard a final opportunity to steal the victory. Head coach JB Bickerstaff spoke on what it meant to fight through these obstacles on the way to a win.
“You give up 23 offensive rebounds, typically that’s hard to overcome, and then throw in 10 more team rebounds. A team that shot 104 shots to our 76 shots, that’s hard to overcome. We have to be better. It’s not just one guy. It’s not just our big guys,” Bickerstaff stated. “Our big guys are doing so much to protect the rest of the guys on the floor that our smalls have to do a better job of coming in and protecting them. Things we can learn, things we can get better from. But to hold them to 20 points in the fourth quarter, and our defense was elite down that stretch, gave us an opportunity to win and ultimately we did.”
Pistons' season debut by Ausar Thompson
The Pistons got a much-needed lift in depth with the return of second-year forward Ausar Thompson. Thompson checked in during the second quarter for the first time since March last season due to blood clots. Bickerstaff continuously spoke on not wanting to rush back Detroit's primary defender to the court but got some valuable minutes in his 2024-25 debut.
In sixteen minutes of action, Thompson made some major plays to keep the Pistons afloat. He saw plenty of reps defending Toronto's primary scorers and spread the ball around for four assists to his teammates. Bickerstaff was impressed and pleased with Thompson's returning impact for the Pistons.
“I just know what he’s capable of defensively. I put him in a challenging position. To be in the game, that late in the game in your first time back and having to do things defensively that we wanted him to do,” Bickerstaff said. “I think he was really successful at it because he just played in a position of comfort and did what he was comfortable doing. I thought he was really good at pushing the ball. He made some great plays to his teammates to get them some wide-open looks and easy buckets. He initiated some offense for us. I think he was really good overall and the more comfortably he gets the better he’s going to be obviously.”
Detroit picked up some helpful team balance on both sides of the ball. Center Jalen Duren had one of his most consistent games scoring 13 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and blocked four shots. Veteran Malik Beasley scored 14 points in his starting role. Forward Tobias Harris chipped in 12 points for the Pistons to contribute to the win.
