The Detroit Pistons aim to carry the momentum from a double-overtime win into their game against the host Toronto Raptors on Sunday afternoon.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 10 of his 32 points in the two overtime periods and rookie Jalen Duren had a career-high 30 points in the Pistons’ 138-131 victory over the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Friday.
Detroit will face a reeling Raptors team that squandered a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead in losing 122-116 to the visiting Utah Jazz on Friday.
Duren also grabbed 17 rebounds — two short of his career best — as the Pistons ended a three-game losing streak on Friday.
“That was two young teams with guys trying to make a mark in this league,” said 19-year-old Duren, who also blocked a career-high four shots. “I love games like this, where it is a bunch of young guys out there battling.”
“He made a lot of big plays at the right time (Friday),” said Pistons coach Dwane Casey, a former Raptors coach. “He was big on the boards and he was catching the ball in traffic and finishing. He could have had even more if not for the (five) free throws he missed. He could barely walk by the end.”
Over his past 10 games, Duren is averaging 13.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots.
In their loss to the Jazz, the Raptors took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter and still led by 13 with 5:17 to play.
The Raptors wasted a 35-point effort by Pascal Siakam.
“I thought everything was going just the way we wanted it to for the first 36 minutes of that game,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought we were making really good decisions. We obviously were shooting it a little bit from the perimeter. We just couldn’t stop the parade to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.”
Utah was 11-for-13 from the foul line in the final period and shot 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) from the field in the quarter against a porous Raptors defense.
“I take 100 percent of the blame on that,” said Raptors center Precious Achiuwa, who had 16 points and four rebounds. “I’ve got to do a better job of anchoring the defense back there, getting guys where they need to be. Just got to be better.”
The Raptors shot 8-for-23 (34.8 percent) from the field in the final 12 minutes.
Jakob Poeltl, who played his first game for Toronto after being acquired in a trade with the Spurs on Thursday, had six points, four rebounds and five fouls in 16:41 playing time as a reserve.
He started the game on the bench because he had not had a chance to practice with the team, but Nurse expects Poeltl to eventually become a starter and provide an anchor for the defense.
“Hopefully he’s going to rim protect, either with some shot-blocking or some vertical-type moves,” Nurse said. “Hopefully, he’ll defensive rebound for us, too. We work pretty hard at defensive rebounding. There are guys that need to get involved in that. Hopefully, he can take some of that load off our guys.
“He’s got a good IQ. That’s important, when a guy back there has some IQ and can direct traffic a bit.”
The Raptors were without O.G. Anunoby (wrist) for the seventh consecutive game on Friday.
–Field Level Media
