At Toronto Jan. 4th, 7:00 PM
TV - FSN Detroit, ESPN


The Pistons travel to Toronto looking for their 11th straight victory. The Raptors currently hold the 4th seed in the EC.

Maybe a "trap" game for the Pistons, with the Celtics looming large the next night?

The Raptors are returning from a weirdly scheduled road trip--they went out West for 7 straight games, but they had something like 5 days off right in the middle of the trip. And they'll have had another several days off before this game against the Pistons.

I'm not feeling a let down. We have so much hunger from our bench, that it seems like those flat performances are so last year.

I agree. There are no indicators that they are going to take the pedal off the metal. My biggest concern is that Flip eases starters minutes and plays AA and AJ a bit more to keep starters fresher for the Boston game.

Is this a concern or a request?

It is a request in a form of concern, if that makes sense.

I would be more interested in playing the rotation the same as usual, but not change it to win the game with extra minutes for the starters. The other night the Celts big 3 played 40+ minutes just to win.

Let them win the 70 games and burn out the starters. I'll take NBA finals appearance over that.

A few concerns and random thoughts on this game.
The Pistons have to play one game at a time and not be looking ahead to the Celtic game.

If the starters get a comfortable lead, they cannot let up...need to crush when you have the opportunity.

The bench has to hold what ever lead the starters give them so that Flip won't have to bring the starters back in for extra minutes

And finally, we all like streaks, but Flip can't overplay the starters in the late 4th trying to secure the streak. Trust the bench and save the fresh starters for the Boston game. (The C's wll be at home Friday and porbably won't have to put up that big of an effort vs the Grizzlies so their big three might be better rested if Flip pulls out all stops for a victory in Toronto. )

Also this game is on ESPN where our success has not been that great...although the last one on ESPN we did win vs the C's!

Why, is Darko injured?