Strong performances from DeRozan, Valanciunas lead Raptors past Pistons

TORONTO – Jonas Valanciunas just seems to have the Pistons number.

The seven-foot Lithuanian recorded his 14th double-double of the season – 20 points and 11 rebounds – and the Raptors offence came back to life in a 114-110 victory Sunday night.

While Valanciunas can’t explain why, his game undeniably finds another gear when he’s matched up against Detroit, a team with a tough frontcourt led by Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.

In the last four contests between the Raptors and Pistons, dating back to April 2014, the third-year starter has averaged 21.5 points and 9.5 rebounds.

“I was just keeping myself active, trying to rebound [and] go hard,” Valanciunas said with a smile after the win. “I got some post-up [opportunities] from my teammates so I was trying to use those chances.”

After a five-game stretch in which the Raptors offence struggled to find any kind of rhythm, something seemed to click upon the team’s return to the Air Canada Centre after a short three-game road trip.

The Raptors shot 53 per cent from the field, reached the 20-assist plateau (23 in total) for the first time in five games and had six players score in double figures, including DeMar DeRozan, who poured in a team-high 25 points on 8-of-14 from shooting.

“I knew our offence was going to coming around,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said after the win. “DeMar [DeRozan] was going to find his legs at the right time and he did tonight. I thought Jonas [Valanciunas] came in and gave us a good presence inside offensively, so I was pleased with our overall offensive production.”

It was a bounce-back game for the team’s star shooting guard, who after putting together three strong performances immediately after returning from a groin injury that kept him out of the lineup for 21 games, had fallen into an offensive funk.

“Every time I got it in transition I pushed it up and down the court,” DeRozan said after the game. “I was kind of intimidated in doing that in a lot of games before, but like I said every day I’m feeling more comfortable and better.”

More impressive than his final point total was the fact that DeRozan went 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. Getting to the charity stripe is one of his biggest strengths as an offensive player, but he's failed to do so with any kind of consistency since returning from injury totaling just 20 free-throw attempts in six games prior Sunday.

“I almost forgot how I used to get to the free-throw line,” he said jokingly. “It felt good. I just want to go out and be aggressive.”

While the Raptors offence responded after a sluggish win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, the team still has issues to solve defensively if they’re serious about competing for a top two or three seed in the East.

They allowed an undermanned Pistons team – starting point guard Brandon Jennings suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon Saturday and will miss the rest of the season – to shoot nearly 54 per cent from the field in the first half, while backup point guard D.J. Augustin’s career-high 35- point night left one Toronto columnist questioning whether the Raptors have an issue containing point guards.

“We have issues everywhere defensively,” Casey said. “Sometimes you have to pick your poison as far as three or the tough twos, but we’ve got some situations. In our pick-and-roll scheme it’s not just one person. It’s the big and the small. We’ve got to get better.”

That said, as Casey stressed post-game, it’s a process and a journey and if nothing else Sunday's performance was proof that the Raptors are slowly returning to form.