As you read this, the Philadelphia 76ers are playing the Detroit Pistons.
The timing couldn’t be better: just nine days ago, my wife Jasmin and I were inside Little Caesars Arena in Detroit watching the Pistons host the Toronto Raptors in a preseason game.
Having run the Chicago Marathon just five days earlier, it was time to unwind. What better way to relax than watching the greatest show on earth? It was my first visit to both Illinois and Michigan, and Jasmin’s relatives—Pepe and Terry Girado, along with Edgar and Telly Mangao—treated us to two of Michigan’s best sights: the Henry Ford Museum and F-150 plant tour in Dearborn, as well as a scenic Detroit Princess lunch cruise.
Pistons vs. Raptors, played last Oct. 16, was a highlight of the trip. Last season, the Pistons led the Eastern Conference with a 60-22 win-loss record.
Cade Cunningham was the star of the stadium when we entered past 6 p.m. With his signature shaggy hair, he was effortlessly shooting 3s during the warmup.
Jalen Duren is massive! He stands 6 feet 10 and weighs 250 lbs. and it’s all muscle.
Duncan Robinson was a familiar face. Ever since breaking out with the Miami Heat, he has been recognized as one of the best shooters in the NBA. What’s special about him is that he played college at the University of Michigan—a campus in Ann Arbor that we got to visit during our trip, just an hour’s drive from Detroit.
The other stars of the Pistons included Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Joe and Ronald Holland II. The Pistons were complete in this game — a good move to prepare themselves for the official start of the season.
Unfortunately, the Toronto Raptors were shorthanded. The man we wanted to see was absent: Kawhi Leonard. Same with Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett. The team from Canada (just a 1.5-hour flight) decided to fully rest their stars.
But the game wasn’t lopsided.
Even without their star players, the Raptors kept the game close as Cunningham led the Pistons with 18 points and 7 assists, while Duren dominated inside.
The 20,332-seat Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, built in 2017, was about 70 percent full for the non-bearing exhibition. Still, the atmosphere was fun. The arena crew kept the energy high with nonstop “pakulo” during timeouts and halftime: the T-shirt cannon firing freebies into the upper deck, high-flying dunk stunts off trampolines, Little Caesars pizza boxes handed out for free, and dance cams that had the entire building roaring.
The fourth quarter turned into an exciting shootout as the Raptors scored 45 points in a frantic rally. But Detroit managed to hold them off, winning 129–125.
The win proved to be a good omen for the Pistons, who carried that momentum into an opening-game victory over the Boston Celtics.
Today, let’s see if the Pistons can keep the streak alive against LeBron and the 76ers.