Pistons recover from early 14 point deficit to edge the Raptors

64. Final. 111. 81. 114

A. Jennings killed it on both ends. He played with just the right amount of recklessness, mostly making the smart plays but occasionally recognizing he had the talent to make something off-book happen. I particularly enjoyed when the Raptors double teamed him in the half court to try to force a turnover and he pulled the trap about 12 feet behind the arc before tossing the ball back in and letting his teammates execute a quick 4-on-3.<p class=. PG. Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS

C. Caldwell-Pope demonstrated good hustle, but it didn’t usually turn into much. It appears that he didn’t realize how fast Vasquez could get off a shot as he was typically a little late on the close outs. He had a nice hard foul on Lowry, though.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE

C+. Singler made a couple huge baskets in the 22-7 third quarter run that turned the tide of this game. But his highlight for the night had to be when Jerebko snagged a huge fourth quarter offensive rebound to hit Jennings for a three while a couple Raptors were taking off to try to run a fast break and the commentator accidentally gave the credit to Singler.. SF. Pistons. KYLE SINGLER

B+. With six offensive boards and seven free throw attempts, Monroe was the only reliable source of offense for Detroit beyond Jennings. I also enjoyed his regularly mixing it up with James Johnson, especially as the game got really chippy in the fourth. But it would have been nice if, between he and Drummond, the Pistons could have slowed Valanciunas even a little bit.. PF. Pistons. GREG MONROE

D. Drummond got lots of boards as usual, but many of them were just cleaning up his own bad shots. And he was even more useless against Valanciunas than Monroe. I never saw him box the Raptor center out, although he did occasionally rip away a rebound through the sheer force of his massive athleticism advantage.. C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND

D+. It’s hard to imagine that there was a time this season when it looked like Augustin was going to take the primary point guard role away from Jennings.. PG. Pistons. D.J. AUGUSTIN

JODIE MEEKS. C. Meeks didn’t shoot all that well, but he persistently pulled defenders out of the paint.. SG. Pistons

Inc. Butler had minimal impact on the game.. SF. Pistons. CARON BUTLER

PF. Pistons. JONAS JEREBKO. A-. I seriously hope that Jerebko is still flying under the radar and continues to do so for the remainder of the season. At $4.5M, he represents terrific value and I’m worried another team might throw him a hefty raise.

Inc. See Butler, but worse.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER

C. Pistons. JOEL ANTHONY. C+. Anthony defended Patterson well, but that’s a lot easier than doing the same on Valanciunas.

A. And it continues. The Pistons got punched in the mouth early. They had righted the ship by halftime, but looked significantly less talented than the Raptors. So even though a 12 point deficit isn’t huge, it looked like a tall order to climb back.<p>And then, in the second half, the Raptors continued to look more talented. But the Pistons looked calm, focused, and disciplined and forced Toronto into a couple sloppy quarters. I don’t know when I last saw Detroit win a game by playing a more controlled game than them.</p><p>Climbing out of a two-game hole isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds in the NBA, especially when mired in a pack of seven teams with similar records vying for just two spots. But the Pistons haven’t played a single bad game out of the 10 (including a 3-1 record against very good teams) since cutting Smith and I now genuinely expect them to make the playoffs. That is an insane turnaround that I couldn’t have imagined less than a month ago.</p>. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY