Under different conditions, we would not be at all interested in a Monday night February match-up between the Raptors and Pistons. It would just be another forgettable game on the schedule. I made this point in the morning preview, and I stand by it. But then Detroit traded for Blake Griffin in an attempt to push into the playoff picture, and the Raptors are still in first — so there were playoff implications to tonight’s game.
The key word, of course, being “were,” since the Raptors put so thorough a beatdown on the Pistons tonight there doesn’t seem to be much more to glean from it than: Raptors good, Pistons bad.