Game 5: Detroit Pistons @ Toronto Raptors [Game Thread]

NBA Regular Season Game 5
	@
2-2 (1-1 away)		1-2 (1-1 home)
Air Canada Centre Raptors Blog: Raptors HQ
November 4, 2009  7:00 PM ET
TV: Fox Sports Detroit  Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Probable starters:
Rodney Stuckey	PG	Jose Calderon
Ben Gordon	SG	DeMar DeRozan
Jonas Jerebko	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Charlie Villanueva	PF	Chris Bosh
Ben Wallace	C	Andrea Bargnani

Detroit travels to Toronto sans Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, as was expected, so Ben Gordon will start his fourth consecutive game and rookie, Jonas Jerebko, will presumably get his 2nd straight start.  Jonas showed a lot of intensity last night and while I don't know if he's deserving of a starting role, he definitely compliments Ben Wallace's tenacity pretty well. 

On the tail end of Detroit's first back-to-back this past weekend they came out playing well on the road against the Bucks, but fell flat on their faces in the third quarter.  Hopefully, there won't be a hangover affect from last night's hard fought win and Detroit plays a full 48 minutes of sound basketball from start to finish, and left the third quarter collapse at home with Rip and Tay (not that they had anything to do with it last time or anything, just saying).  

I'm not really sure what to think of the Raptors.  They are definitely improved with the addition of Turkoglu and rookie DeRozan, but they still leave a lot to be desired.  They do have former Piston, Amir Johnson and he's averaging a not-surprising one point and one rebound per game.  But look for him to "go at" his former teammates tonight. 

The Raptors are coming off a loss to the Magic (without Vince) that the Pistons just beat (with Vince), but they will be on three days rest (opposed to the Pistons' 21 hours) and will be in front of their home crowd.   

Containing Chris Bosh, a hopeful future Piston player in my book, will be a major key for the Pistons.  If all goes well, the Pistons will get him out of his game and into early foul trouble, causing him to write a blog post like this after the game. 

Tip off is 7:00 PM EST and will be on Fox Sports Detroit.  NBA.com's League Pass free trial ended last night, so hopefully you out of marketers have made necessary accommodations for tonight and will join fellow Pistons fans in the comments.

Go Pistons!