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Tuesday, Apr. 4 8:00pm ET
Raptors booed at home -- again row | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
TORONTO (AP) -- The Toronto Raptors are falling fast, and their fans' patience is slipping, too. Grant Hill had 32 points and Jerry Stackhouse added 28 as the Detroit Pistons beat Toronto 104-88 Tuesday night, extending the Raptors' losing skid to four games.
Hill was 12-of-25 and added nine rebounds while Stackhouse shot 10-of-21 as the Pistons won their third straight road game. The Raptors, who held a three-hour team meeting Monday, were booed for the second straight game by a sold-out crowd at the Air Canada Center. "We lost. There's nothing good to find out of a loss. Not in my book," said a sullen Vince Carter, who had a quiet 24 points despite nursing a bruised right shoulder from Sunday's game. "I'm not holding my head down. I know I'm a big part of this team and I know I have to step it up. We just have to turn this around." Detroit had 11 steals to Toronto's two, and went to the line 39 times compared with 17 for Toronto. "Our defense has to toughen up. We can't let teams shoot 50 percent and go to the free-throw line more than us," Tracy McGrady said. "They just kept pounding us and pounding us because we weren't being aggressive." McGrady led Toronto with a career-high 28 points and added 11 rebounds. Dell Curry had 14 points in 18 minutes off the bench, Antonio Davis had 12 rebounds and Charles Oakley grabbed 10 boards. "It's tough to swallow a game like that. We tried to correct some of the mistakes we made," Davis said. "But none of that matters because the bottom line is we didn't win." Some members of the Raptors, who have lost eight of their last nine and are only 1 1-2 games up on Detroit for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, had complained about coach Butch Carter's substitution patterns and play calling after the Indiana loss. "Our aggressiveness doesn't match what's going on with other teams right now," coach Carter said. "I think we should be more competitive." Detroit let Toronto close a 15-point deficit to four when Carter hit one of two free throws midway through the fourth quarter, but Curry later threw the ball away on a Toronto possession which led to a layup by Mikki Moore. Stackhouse then hit a 3-pointer with 2:50 to go to give the Pistons a comfortable 93-84 lead. The Pistons took advantage of the Raptors' sloppy defense and took a 58-50 lead into the half on 50 percent shooting. Hill was allowed to drive to the basket all night. He tied it 38-38 4:19 into the second quarter on a layup and then gave the Pistons the lead for good on a couple minutes later on a tough drive in the lane. "Just when we thought we had (Hill) stopped, he went on a torrid driving campaign to the basket," coach Carter said. Toronto showed some life in the first quarter when McGrady slammed down an alley-oop pass from Oakley to cap a 17-4 run and open a 22-13 lead eight minutes into the game, but it was all downhill after that. "We played good defense. We got out there and rebounded," Hill said. "Vince Carter put up 10 quick points in the first quarter and I thought it was going to be a long night. I tried to mix it up out there." Game notesThe start time was changed from 7 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. to accomodate the TNT telecast. ... The Pistons have a stretch of 11 games in 19 nights, including four sets of back-to-back games. ... Detroit is 15-4 overall against Toronto. ... Carter turned the ball over three times in the first quarter. ... The Raptors haven't had a lead entering the fourth quarter for the last 12 games. ... Detroit is 6-1 on the road under interim coach George Irvine. ... Hill scored 16 points in the second quarter. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Detroit Clubhouse Toronto Clubhouse RECAPS Washington 102 New Jersey 93
Detroit 104 AUDIO/VIDEO   Grant Hill knows the importance of winning on the road.wav: 146 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6   | |||||
