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AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — There's a fine line between being confident, overconfident and perhaps a bit delusional.
The Toronto Raptors have been dancing around it for the past few weeks as they try to convince themselves they're a playoff-worthy team despite all evidence.
Sunday afternoon, the Raptors had the opportunity to beat an elite team playing at full strength for the first time in nearly two months.
Instead, the Raptors were manhandled quite comfortably, 91-84, by the Detroit Pistons, turning a chance to be impressive on a rare U.S. television appearance into more proof the Raptors' brief spurts of consistency this season are the exception and their all-too familiar struggles the rule.
Toronto Raptors guard Anthony Parker tangles with Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton while trying to drive to the basket in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday in Auburn Hills, Mich. (Duane Burleson/Associated Press)
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- Detroit Pistons
- Miami Heat
- Orlando Magic
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Toronto Raptors
- Andrea Bargnani
- Chris Bosh
- Jose Calderon
- T.J. Ford
- Jamario Moon
- Jamario Moon
- Anthony Parker
- Rodney Stuckey
"We're not paying attention to [our record]," Toronto's Chris Bosh said. "The last three games, we're 2 and 1. That's how I look at it. We just can look back and dwell on the past. We're looking forward to the future, we're looking forward to playoffs and playing to get in that playoff form."
The two wins, however, were against teams that will be watching the NBA playoffs at home. The Pistons are favoured to go deep into the playoffs yet again this year and looked up to the task against Toronto as they won the season series 3-1.
The loss dropped Toronto to 40-40 on the season and into a tie with the Philadelphia 76ers, although Toronto maintains the No.ƒ|6 seed because they won the season series against Philadelphia.
The Raptors will play the Miami Heat, the NBA's worst team, at the Air Canada Centre tonight in their final home game before finishing up on the road against the Chicago Bulls, another playoff outsider.
If they win both games, they would be guaranteed the sixth seed and would open the playoffs against the No.ƒ|3 Orlando Magic.
Publicly, the Raptors will say they want the sixth seed — they can't get the fifth — because they want to finish as high as possible in the standings. They also acknowledge that playing the Pistons, who improved to 57-23 on the season with the win, is a tall order.
"We're in sixth right now, we don't want to go down," Bosh said. "We know this is a tough place to play and somewhere you don't want to start out. We just want to build some momentum and play these next two games, see what Philly does and see where we end up by Wednesday."
It's worth noting that the Orlando Magic are the only playoff-bound team the Raptors have beaten since Feb. 1 — if you discount Toronto's win over Detroit on March 26 when the Pistons were missing all-star Richard Hamilton.
Toronto came out a spirited group in the first quarter Sunday, forcing the normally steady Pistons into five turnovers, with all five starters cracking the scoreboard.
But Hamilton was able to find his way into the paint for an easy jump shot and then Andrea Bargnani and Jamario Moon mixed up their coverage allowing Tayshaun Prince a wide-open three pointer at the buzzer to give Detroit a 26-21 lead after 12 minutes.
The Raptors' real problem wasn't the Pistons' potent and experienced starting unit; it was the young and energetic bench the Raptors couldn't handle.
After trailing by five points at the half, Toronto held the Pistons' starters to just 29.4-per-cent shooting in the third quarter, but barely took advantage as they shot just 32 per cent on their way to a 43.4-per-cent mark for the game, compared with 48.7-per-cent shooting by Detroit. The Raptors were outrebounded 44-33.
Still, they were able to pull to two points behind with 12 minutes to play. Unfortunately, Pistons coach Flip Saunders elected to play his second unit the rest of the way and the Raptors had no one who could keep in front of rookie guard Rodney Stuckey, who scored 10 of his 14 points down the stretch, while Jason Maxiell bulled his way around the paint for eight of his 14 points.
Bosh, in contrast, was a man on an island. The Pistons elected not to send a second defender to him and he certainly was able to get his points, but other than 16 from Rasho Nesterovic, who expertly found pockets of space near the basket, the rest of the lineup was 15-for-47.
There were still some optimistic voices in the locker room afterward, however.
"We know we can do it," said Anthony Parker, who scored six points in his 32 minutes of floor time. "There's no convincing us [we can't]. We don't sit around looking at the stats and data and that kind of thing. That's the luxury of being a player. The playoffs is a different season. You lock in on one team, everyone knows what you're going to do and we have the confidence that we can win."
But against whom?
