On a team as thin as the Raptors -- they've only got 13 players under contract and four are in their rookie or second seasons in the league -- there are bound to be nights when coach Sam Mitchell has to stretch out his starters much more than he'd like to.
It's happened once already this season -- three starters played more than 41 minutes of a game in Milwaukee -- and it's bound to happen again. Mitchell doesn't seem to care all that much.
"We've got days in between games, it allows me to play those guys a little bit more," Mitchell said of his starting five. "If I feel like we need to do that, we'll do that until we're comfortable extending (the bench players') minutes."
There isn't a lot of time off coming, however. The Raptors begin a stretch Friday in Atlanta of three games in four nights and six games in nine.
They don't have more than one night off between games until Nov. 13-15.
But until a handful of backups prove their consistency (Andrea Bargnani, for instance, went scoreless in two of the team's first three games and had 19 points in the other), Mitchell isn't going to have the luxury of finding much rest of his starters.
PISTONS 100, RAPTORS 93: Running off screens and getting open looks like they've done countless times before, Tayshaun Prince had 27 points and Rip Hamilton added 22 as Detroit stopped Toronto's three-game winning streak.
The Raptors (3-1), who need someone unexpected to jump up and provide offense for games they'll win, got nothing like that last night. Chris Bosh was excellent, with 26 points and 13 rebounds and Jose Calderon had 11 of his 24 points in the third quarter as Toronto mounted its rally. But that's it.
Andrea Bargnani provided 12 points off the bench but Jamario Moon (2-for-3), Jason Kapono (0-for-6), Anthony Parker (3-for-9) and Jermaine O'Neal (3-for-10) were only so-so at best.
