They beat a (very good) team on their home court. They didn’t wilt in the fourth quarter and were forceful enough elsewhere that the final score was 119-108 over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday in a rare late-season game where each team was rested and (relatively) healthy. Thus, not requiring an asterisk or an explanation.
The Raptors were the better team and improved their record to 38-29, good enough to stand alone in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. They end the weekend getting two of their best wins of the season — including Friday’s win over the Phoenix Suns — in their pockets before they head out on a five-game road trip this week.
Does it matter that RJ Barrett is playing some of the best basketball of his career, adding a 27-point night on 11-of-17 shooting to a 10-game stretch of high-efficiency offence and solid defence?
That Brandon Ingram has burst out of a post-all-star slump to score 70 points in his last two games?
That Scottie Barnes defended at centre and point guard against Detroit and added 14 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three blocked shots to his pile of game-changing all-around performances?
Should people take notice after the Raptors have been routinely dismissed as not a serious factor in the East, given their struggles against winning teams all season?
That’s definitely a maybe, but they don’t care.
“Outside noise is outside noise,” said Ingram, who followed up his 36-point masterclass on Friday against the Suns with 34 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including two game-swinging threes in the fourth quarter against Detroit. “Whatever opinion they have about us, that’s cool, but we continue to fight, try to be the best we can on every single time that we play and live with the result.”
The result was almost very different.
The game seemed like it was going to slip away midway through the fourth quarter. That would have derailed any momentum the Raptors were hoping to build. It would have made Friday’s win seem more of an anomaly and Sunday just one more instance of the Raptors being Raptors: folding under pressure.
There was Jakob Poeltl late to get out to Javonte Green, who was loading up for an otherwise wide-open three-point attempt in the corner, and fouling the Detroit Pistons guard, who went on to make all three of his free throws.
At the other end, Ingram missed a tightly contested jumper at the free-throw line and then missed a wide-open look from three at the top of the circle after the Raptors had rebounded his first miss.
Pistons star Cade Cunningham came back and eased into a comfortable mid-range jumper, the kind of look the burgeoning superstar can get to almost anytime he needs to, thanks to his combination of point guard shiftiness and being 6-foot-7.
Almost imperceptibly, you could sense the air begin to seep out of Scotiabank Arena, like a pinprick in a birthday balloon.
It was just five unanswered points, but it was at the stage of the game where so many potential Raptors wins have breathed their last breath before the pillow came down on their face for good. Especially against quality teams and in the Eastern Conference this season, none are better than the first-place Pistons.
After leading by 14 two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Raptors’ lead had been cut in half.
On the next possession, the Raptors missed two more good looks: a three-point chance by Barrett and another jumper from Ingram after an offensive rebound. After getting a stop, the Raptors’ next possession ended up being an uncomfortable floater by back-up point guard Jamal Shead, who does all kinds of good things as a second-year player, but is one of the least reliable offensive options in the league at the moment, as his 36.8 per cent field-goal percentage would indicate.
Shead missed, and the Pistons ripped the ball off the backboard and fired the outlet pass to Cunningham. He was moving full speed and easily blew past Barnes in the open court, flying in for a dunk that pulled Detroit within five.
Breathing was getting laboured.
When Barnes and Ingram got crossed up, bringing the ball over centre, with Barnes making an unforced turnover, passing the ball behind Ingram and into the crowd courtside, the air was all the way gone.
For a moment, it seemed like the Raptors were going to accept their destiny and fumble away another late lead and potential win against a good team by simply freezing in the fourth quarter.
The offensive numbers are undeniable: Toronto came into Sunday’s game 28th in offensive rating in the fourth quarter and 24th in the clutch, defined as the last five minutes of games that are within five points.
On top of that, the Raptors have been miserable when faced with quality opponents. The last time they beat a top 10 team was Jan. 25. The time before that was Nov. 24. Their record on the season was 4-18, and three of those wins were in November against a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was going through an early-season crisis.
There was some encouragement provided by a solid start-to-finish effort against the Suns on Friday, the Raptors’ first win over a .500 team in their previous since they beat a short-handed OKC Thunder team nearly six weeks ago.
But the Pistons had shoved the Raptors aside at Scotiabank Arena in a blowout just before the all-star break, playing with a level of toughness and aggression that Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said had overwhelmed his team.
As is his way, he tried to spin it as a learning experience.
“I think what we’re learning from that is how can we learn to be that type of team on the defence end and also how an offence we way we need to play against the type of physicality,” Rajakovic said before Sunday’s game. “So anytime when we play against a team like Detroit, I think it’s super, super positive for us.”
And it was certainly looking that way through the first 42 or so minutes.
The Raptors matched the Pistons early and earned a 33-32 lead after the first quarter. They were down 64-59 at half, but considering the Raptors had connected on just 3-of-17 three-point attempts, it reflected well on them that they were even in the game. A 10-3 edge in offensive rebounds (on their way to 20-13 for the game) certainly helped.
And then in the third quarter, the Raptors look like the best version of what this team could be. It was Toronto that was doing the overwhelming. Barrett was hounding Cade Cunningham into submission in front of the Raptors bench. Ja’Kobe Walter gave some positive minutes guarding Cunningham (33 points, nine assists) and hit a crucial three after Shead drove and got two feet into the paint, collapsing the defence before threading a pass out to Barnes, who one-touched it to Walter.
The Raptors were up 14 with less than two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. They had a 12-point lead to start the fourth. And they managed the lead well too, getting a couple of early stops and Poeltl – in his best game of the season on his way to 21 points and a season-best 18 rebounds in a season-high 37 minutes – converted a floater after Barnes hit him with a pass from the middle of the paint. A moment later, Poeltl hit Barnes in the post for one of his five assists, and Barnes converted the three-point play.
But by the mid-point of the third, all of that seemed like a distant, pleasant thought, displaced suddenly by the reality that the Raptors seemed on the verge of blowing this thing.
But they didn’t. And tellingly, they didn’t need a timeout or any kind of encouragement or admonishment.
They needed to score against the NBA’s second-best defence.
And they did. Ingram knocked down a triple off a drive from Barnes and a swing pass from Immanuel Quickley. A three from Pistons veteran Tobias Harris cut the lead back to five, but Poeltl tipped in a Barrett miss. Detroit cut the lead to five one more time on a pair of Cunningham free throws, but this time it was Barrett hitting a step back jumper with 62 seconds left before Ingram closed it out with his fourth triple of the game and ninth of the weekend, following up the five he knocked down against Phoenix.
“I think it’s around that time for things to start clicking defensively, offensively,” said Ingram afterwards. “We went through a little rough patch these previous four games, but we found it. We had some conversations. Our communication on the floor has been good, and we’ve been able to fight back when we’ve been down and stay together. So, you know, it’s building.”
Ironman: The last time Poeltl played more than 36 minutes in a regulation game was Dec. 1, 2024. The last time he played more than 32 minutes in a regulation game this season was Nov. 19. And Poeltl’s playing load has been carefully monitored all season, as he’s struggled with a back problem that kept him out of the lineup for 29 of the Raptors’ 67 games. But the Raptors needed him Sunday to match up with Pistons all-star Jalen Duren, the 6-foot-10, 250-pounder who is one of the strongest and athletic big men in the league, and he delivered. That he was able to manage the demands bodes well for the rest of the season. Jak’s back may be back: “It was a good battle today,” said Poeltl. “So in that sense, I did enjoy it … I felt good today, the body felt really fresh. It’s a long season, and sometimes you wake up, and the body feels a little funky; other days you feel great. It’s difficult to figure out why some days are better than others. But today I’m really good, and I had a lot of energy on the court.”
Fifteenth man: The Raptors don’t have one … yet. With the salary cap situation the Raptors are in, March 15 was the first day they could add a player at the pro-rated minimum salary and stay under the luxury tax threshold, which was the impetus for Toronto trading Ochai Agbaji at the deadline in February. It doesn’t sound like the Raptors are in a rush to sign a player for the remainder of the season, but they are planning to use the roster spot and the flexibility they have to sign someone to a 10-day contract. Just looking at the calendar, if the Raptors add a 10-day signee on Wednesday before they play the Chicago Bulls, they could have him on their roster for a stretch of six games: their entire five-game west-coast road trip and their first game back in Toronto on March 27 against the New Orleans Pelicans. As for who? That’s a different question. The Raptors have seen some encouraging signs from Markelle Fultz with Raptors 905, but you get the sense they’d like to see him get closer to NBA game shape after a long lay-off before committing there. We’ll see.
The rotation shrinks, but Walter fits: A strong indication that this was a game that the Raptors were determined to win was the way the minutes were distributed. In addition to Poeltl, Ingram played 39 minutes, Barnes played 38 and Barrett 39, all well above their season averages. Even Immanuel Quickley, who struggled offensively (1-of-12 from the floor, though he had seven assists and just one turnover against three steals), played 34 minutes. Only three players saw minutes off the bench. Jamal Shead and Sandro Mamukelashvili have been fixtures all season, but that Walter got even 12 minutes against the Pistons, given how heavily Rajakovic was leaning on his starters, is telling. The second-year wing has earned the coaching staff’s trust. He only took two shots but hit an important three-pointer in the third quarter and had two steals. He stuck his nose in to guard Cunningham. “He brings a lot of defensive intensity. He’s a young player that is developing, but we’re very comfortable using him in different matchups, different personnel: guarding point guards, guarding shooting guards,” said Rajakovic. “… Just his attention to detail and his competitiveness is what is keeping him on the floor. While he’s doing that, his offensive game is developing as well, from three-point shooting, decision-making and cutting. He’s doing all that stuff.”