The game hung in the balance in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, and the Raptors once again failed.
And they are now an ignominious part of basketball history.
With even casual sports fans across North American paying attention because of the historic ineptitude of the Detroit Pistons, the Raptors proved how far they have to go after outlosing the losingest team of all-time.
A game that finished with both teams floundering, mistake after misplay both ways, finally ended with
“I was almost in tears and so happy for our guys,” Pistons coach Monty Williams was quoted on social media as telling reporters in Detroit after the game.
And make no mistake, the Raptors were responsible for their own demise in Detroit, and that has to be the most worrisome point of the evening,
They knew what they were up against — any NBA fan on Earth knew — and they couldn’t find a way to bury the Pistons from the start.
They played poorly down the stretch, started slowly and let a team that was down retain some hope, and dug a double-digit hole in the third quarter. And when the game needed someone to take it by the scruff of the neck and make it his own, no Toronto player did.
