The Detroit Pistons are hanging in there without their top
two scorers and will hit the road for consecutive games starting with
Wednesday's matchup against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.
Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince have both been sidelines with injuries
and are expected to miss tonight's game as well. Hamilton hasn't played since
a season-opening win at Memphis because of an ankle injury, while Prince
missed Tuesday's win over Orlando due to a balky back. His consecutive-games
streak came to an end at 496, including a league-best 439 straight starts.
Ben Gordon picked up the slack in the victory over the Magic with 23 points,
while both Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey added 20 points.
"It just creates opportunities for other guys to step up," Detroit forward
Charlie Villanueva said of his teammates. "Guys took a challenge and play good
defense down the stretch and made big shots. Will played tremendously well
giving us a spark when we needed him off the bench."
Villanueva chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds for the Pistons, who
averted a three-game losing streak to even their mark at 2-2. Detroit is near
the bottom in the NBA in scoring so far this season, and will take on a
vulnerable Toronto defense tonight.
The Raptors have lost two in a row since winning their season opener versus
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unlike Detroit, they are coming off a 125-116 home
loss versus Orlando on Sunday.
Chris Bosh tallied 35 points and 16 rebounds for the Raptors, who will open a
three-game road trip against New Orleans, Dallas and San Antonio after this
evening's tilt with Detroit. Andrea Bargnani and Hedo Turkoglu chipped in 26
and 19 points, respectively, in a losing effort. Turkoglu helped lead the
Magic to the NBA Finals in the summer before joining Toronto this offseason.
Toronto needs to defend the perimeter better versus the Pistons after Orlando
buried 17-of-32 three-pointers.
Detroit took all three matchups with the Raptors a year ago and has won four
straight and 14 of the last 17 contests in this series. These two teams have
split the previous 10 meetings at Air Canada Centre.
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