(Wednesday Oct 26 at 11:30 PM UTC - on TSN)

Detroit Pistons

Detroit is coming off a season that left them third in their division and were swept by Cleveland in the playoffs. They were defeated by the Raptors in early season play - and really need to hustle if they expect to stand a chance. Detroit has the third highest payroll out of any team in the NBA - their record last year does not reflect the damage this team is capable of.

So Far This Season:

This is the first game for the Pistons; they are considered a dark horse in the east. This is a much more versatile and mature squad compared to last year. They played hard against the Cav's in the playoffs and were swept. Nothing stopped the one man show of Lebron last year so Detroit can be forgiven for being ousted. They have to get better physically, but with the team maturity, this should come. It will be interesting to see what this team does at the 20 game mark,

The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team plays its home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills and was founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons in 1941, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL). The Pistons joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1948. In 1949, the NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA, and the Pistons became part of the merged league.[3][6] Since moving to Detroit in 1957, the Pistons have won three NBA championships in 1989, 1990 and 2004.

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Game Stats Pregame

Toronto Raptors

For a minute there last year - it looked like the Toronto Raptors young squad might make it into the finals. They were of course dissapointed by Cleveland - who seemed to push harder than any other team in the playoffs last year. They are starting this season with much of their squad in tact. A little maturity and these guys will go far. The Raptors finished first in their division last year.

So Far This Season:

This is the first game this year for the Raptors. They will be looking to take an early lead and win the first game of the season. Their team did make it to the quarter-finals last year - which is nothing to sneeze at - not to mention a first place finish. This is a young but much more mature and seasoned club. We will have to wait and see if that playoff energy and consistency throughout last season spills over into this season.

The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. The team was established in 1995, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. When the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, Tennessee to become the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001, the Raptors became the only Canadian-based team in the NBA. They originally played their home games at the SkyDome (since renamed Rogers Centre in 2005), before moving eastward along Bremner Boulevard to the Air Canada Centre in 1999.

Like most expansion teams, the Raptors struggled in their early years, but after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft day trade in 1998, the team set league-attendance records and made the NBA playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Carter was instrumental in leading the team to a then-franchise high 47 wins, and their first playoff series win in 2001, where they advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, they failed to make significant progress, and he was traded in 2004 to the New Jersey Nets.

After Carter had left, Chris Bosh emerged as the team leader. In 2006–07, Bryan Colangelo's first full season as President and General Manager, a combination of Bosh, 2006 first overall NBA draft pick Andrea Bargnani and a revamp of the roster helped the Raptors qualify for their first playoff berth in five years, capturing the Atlantic Division title with 47 wins. In the 2007–08 season, they advanced to the playoffs again, but failed to make the playoffs in each of the next five seasons. In a bid to persuade Bosh to stay, Colangelo overhauled the team roster for the 2009–10 season, but Bosh signed with the Miami Heat in July 2010, ushering in yet another era of rebuilding for the Raptors.

After Masai Ujiri had been brought in as the new General Manager in 2013, he traded Bargnani to the New York Knicks. With a backcourt led by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors returned to the playoffs, won their second Atlantic Division title, and won a then-franchise record 48 games in the 2013–14 season. However, they failed for a fourth consecutive time to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs. In the 2014–15 season, they won a then-franchise record 49 games, but failed for a second consecutive year to advance past the first round of the playoffs, getting swept by the Washington Wizards, 4–0. In the 2015–16 season, they won a franchise record 56 games, finishing in second place in the conference for the first time in franchise history. In the playoffs, they won their first playoff series since 2001 by defeating both the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat, advancing to the Conference Finals for the first time against the Cleveland Cavaliers, only for the Raptors to lose to the eventual NBA champions in six games.
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Game Stats Pregame

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