TORONTO – It could have been a humiliation. Instead it turned out to be another loss.
“I think in the last three quarters, we fought hard,” Stan Van Gundy said after the Pistons lost 96-91 to Toronto. “But the first quarter counts, too.”
Too bad about that. Because the Pistons looked like they were playing basketball with hockey equipment in a first quarter in which they spotted Toronto a 26-11 lead before closing it to a little more reasonable 31-18 when it was over.
The Pistons had a handful of plays that signal the lack of focus Van Gundy and his players often cite when discussing their defensive lapses.