Raptors head to Detroit tonight to take on the Pistons. It’s on TSN2 so most of us in Toronto won’t get to see it, but, frankly, that’s probably for the best. The Pistons are struggling and I think it’s well established this season: If you’re struggling, the best thing you can do is play the Raptors. Boston loses 7 of 9? Play the Raps and get a win. Atlanta loses 5 of 6? Play the Raps and get a win. Sigh.

This will be the first time the Raps face the Allen Iverson version of the Pistons, and they’ve been pretty up and down this season. They struggled a bit when Iverson first arrived, then went on a roll, and now are struggling again, losers of 5 of 6. They seem to be having a hard time integrating Allen Iverson and Richard Hamilton, and as such, the news from Detroit today is that Rip will be coming off the bench. Pretty interesting for a guy who just signed a contract extension - wouldn’t it make more sense to move the guy who is a one-year rental (Iverson) to the bench and keep the guy you see as part of your franchise’s future (Hamilton) in the starting lineup? That’s just me though…

All in all the Chauncey Billups trade looks like it hasn’t really worked out, but as has been speculated all along, I suspect the trade was more about money than anything. The Pistons will save a lot of money with Iverson’s and Rasheed Wallace’s expiring deals, and I think we’ll see a lot of teams trying to save a little dough in the next two years (and as I’m sure you’re all aware, Detroit is a town that’s been hit even harder in these times than most).

But for now, they’re trying to make it work with two high-scoring guards, and if the Raptors are lucky, they won’t get it all figured out tonight and the Raps will be able to steal a W.

Of course, knowing the Raps, that’s not likely to happen. As if their record wasn’t indicator enough (and as if the six straight losses weren’t enough), I’ve mentioned several times now their inability to bounce back from difficult losses, and Monday’s fourth-quarter collapse was another tough one. I don’t think they’ll respond on the road against a team that is hungry for wins like Detroit, and if it comes down to a close fourth quarter, who do you think is going to execute: The brain dead-Raptors, or the veteran, playoff-tested Pistons? And while the Pistons certainly don’t execute as well as they did with Chauncey, at least they have a couple of guys who, you know, are actually capable of getting a shot off in the final minute.

The key matchups tonight come in the frontcourt; with Hamilton on the bench, the Pistons will likely return to the starting lineup they had when he was hurt last month, with Tayshaun Prince at PF and Rasheed Wallace at C, along with Amir Johnson as SF.

This may actually work in the Raps’ favour. If Hamilton were to start at SF, that’d mean Moon would have to check him, and, well, Hamilton would murder him. The matchups are a little more traditional now.

But I’ll tell you what I’d like to see. Moon really needs to be guarding Prince - neither Bosh nor Bargnani should be guarding a perimeter guy like that. Amir Johnson is athletic, but isn’t much of a scoring threat (actually, he can score, he just isn’t a big part of the offsense with AI, Prince and Wallace) so even though he’s quicker than either of our bigs, Bosh or Bargnani should start on him, with the other on Wallace.

Assuming Parker gets the start at PG again, I think we also need to switch up the defensive matchups there - AP should be guarding AI and Joey G is much better suited to guarding Rodney Stuckey, who’s a big, strong PG that can get into the paint.

Defensively, I know the Pistons will likely put Prince on Bosh and leave Johnson to cover Moon, but that doesn’t mean the Raps need to play into that game. You just can’t have Bosh or Bargnani covering Prince; he’ll kill us.

Either way, the Pistons are all tough one-on-one defenders, outside of Iverson, who still plays the passing lanes as well as anyone. Ball movement and hitting open shots is going to be key, as is exploiting any matchups the Raps get if the Pistons go small.

Bench-wise, well, having Hamilton there means Detroit’s bench is about a billion times better than ours. Detroit’s got Jason Maxiell back there as well, who, though he has been up and down this year, has killed us in the past. There’s also veteran Antonio McDyess and of course, one of the few players who can make a legit claim to be a worse #1 overall pick than Andrea Bargnani: Mr. Kwame Brown! The bench is rounded out by Walter Hermann and Aron Afflalo who don’t play much.

For the Raps, Ukic will match up just fine with Will Bynum but against Stuckey or AI? Yikes. Hump and Voskuhl will have their hands full with Maxiell and McDyess, and if comes down to Kapono guarding Hamilton… yikes again.

Then there’s the Jermaine O’Neal factor. He said on Monday he’d play today; here’s me not holding my breath. Even if he does, he’ll be rusty and ineffective on offense, but he should be able to check McDyess on D. I’m not counting on much from him, whether he plays or not.

Really, even though this version of the Pistons isn’t as good as the Chauncey Billups-led Pistons, they’re still not a great matchup for us. Hamilton always kills us, so we have to hope that Iverson and Wallace have off-shooting nights (both are under 43% on the year) and that we can keep Prince from having a big game. On the Raps end, Bosh and Bargnani will both need to have good games - and they’ll need at least one of Parker, Graham or Kapono to step up with a big game of their own.

This Detroit team doesn’t scare me, but I still don’t think the Raps will be up to the task. Pistons by 9.

Detroit Pistons (3-0) at Toronto Raptors (3-0)

Allen Iverson is now a Detroit Piston. And he’ll (most likely) make his debut tonight in Toronto.

Wow. I did not see that one coming… at all. This trade pretty much stunned me. I know Joe Dumars said he was going to shake things up, but that was five months ago! And they brought in a new coach, so I thought that was it.

But to trade your team leader for one of the most non-team-oriented players in the sport… only three games into the season? Wow.

Financially, the trade makes perfect sense for Detroit. They’ve now got Iverson’s contract and Rasheed Wallace’s contract of the books this summer; that’s like $35 million. Now, it would be better if they had that money in 2010, but if they manage the money well this summer, they’ll be players in the LeBron-Wade-Bosh sweepstakes.

Does it make sense on the floor? Well… I’m not sure. Is Rodney Stuckey ready to be a full time point guard? Or are they just gonna leave Iverson as PG (because that’s always worked). Unlike Billups, who had good instincts to know when to pick his shots, Iverson is a volume shooter; how are there gonna be enough shots for him, Hamilton, Rasheed and the rest? They’ve got the firepower, that’s for sure… but can they manage the personalities?

For the Nuggets, the trade looks good on the basketball court; I think Billups and Carmelo Anthony will play well together. They’ll still miss Camby, but, with those two and JR Smith, they’ve still got the scorers, and hopefully, a real game manager.

But financially? I’m not sure about that. Billups has three years left on his contract, and even if they buy out McDyess, they’ll still have to pay him a big chunk of change (for no return). Not that I care about the Nuggets finances either way, but for a team that dumped its best defensive player (Camby) because they couldn’t afford him, this seems like a strange move.

Oh well. How does this affect the Raptors? They now have to face Iverson three or four times a year, and Iverson has had, um, some success against us in the past - he’s got a higher scoring average against the Raps than any other player.

It might also mean Detroit changes its style to a more up-tempo, running/scoring team, rather than the half-court team they’ve been recently; the Raptors, with their short bench and somewhat unathletic roster, aren’t a run-and-gun team. Though of course, they’ve done OK so far against supposed high-scoring teams in the Warriors and Bucks.

For tonight specifically, assuming Iverson plays, it could be a problem for the Raptors. The emotion of having a new face oftentimes carries teams a long away in the first game together; everyone’s just excited to be playing with the new guys.

However, that’s usually in a situation where a team is struggling, or stuck in a rut, or having chemistry problems. Fortunately for Toronto, that’s not the case here - Detroit was playing fine and had some of the best chemistry in the NBA. If anything, Detroit players might be unhappy - Rip Hamilton hasn’t spoken to the press since the trade happened - and that might lead to chemistry issues on the court.

Those issues aside, how do the players match up? Well, if Iverson starts at point guard, he could cause all kinds of problems for Jose Calderon. He’s simply too fast for Jose to guard, and Parker will have his hands full guarding Richard Hamilton. Rip has destroyed the Raptors in the past; hopefully, the fact that he’s got better defense behind him means Parker will play Hamilton tighter more on the perimeter.

Tayshaun Prince has developed an excellent offensive game to accompany his solid defense, and he’ll be a handful for Jamario Moon. Moon’s got a very similar body type to Prince, they’re both tremendously athletic, but Prince has a much higher basketball IQ - he’s one of those guys who always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Hopefully Moon remembers what rebounding is tonight.

Up front, the Pistons have Rasheed Wallace and will presumably go with Amir Johnson. This will be the matchup to watch in my mind. Rasheed Wallace has absolutely abused Chris Bosh in the past; he’s used his size to get inside and his touch to get Bosh away from the basket. So will the Raptors put O’Neal on Wallace? That might prevent Wallace from getting too much inside but it’ll also pull Jermaine away from the hoop. Still, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have Wallace launching threes - and being 22 feet away from the offensive glass - than scoring in the lane.

Johnson is an up and coming player, with a similar game to Bosh - although maybe more of a high-flyer. Bosh should be able to check him no problem.

At the other end, Johnson will have to guard one of the two - and whoever it is had better take advantage of their size and experience advantage. I would imagine Wallace will guard Bosh, if only because, again, he’s given Bosh fits in the past. Besides, O’Neal hasn’t proven his offense is all there yet - why not stick the young guy on him and make O’Neal beat you, instead of Bosh?

The Pistons bring Jason Maxiell and Walter Hermann off the bench, and Maxiell’s tweener size has given the Raptors problems in the past. Hopefully Bargnani’s improved physical play will offset that, and hopefully, either he or Kapono will have the offensive game going tonight.

Rodney Stuckey could be the big x-factor. The Raps had some trouble with him last year, he’s got size and speed that they can’t really match. Then again, the defense is much improved over last year.

In case you can’t tell, I’m really not sure how this one’s gonna go. I’m just gonna hope that the home crowd works in favour of the Raptors, and that the trade has a negative effect on Detroit’s chemistry, and that these things lead the Raptors to victory. Raps by 10.