Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren posted another huge 30-point effort last night against the Toronto Raptors
Last night, the Detroit Pistons took the court against the Toronto Raptors on short rest after a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder the night prior. But instead of using that scheduling difficulty as an excuse, the Pistons used it as motivation to handle their business against the visiting Eastern Conference squad.
But the phrase ‘handling business’ on its own would be too light to properly describe how dominant Pistons center Jalen Duren was against the Raptors with 31 points, nine rebounds and three assists in the 127-116 victory. Detroit has needed more out of Duren as of late with Cade Cunningham sidelined by a collapsed lung, and JD has responded like a player who is hungry to help his team clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Earlier in the season, Duren showed flashes of growth and development now in his fourth season in the NBA, but the Memphis product has taken his game to another level in the second half of the 2025-26 campaign. Duren is currently the favorite to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, and the Motown big man was even selected to his first All-Star team alongside Cunningham.
Right now, Duren is averaging 19.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game for the Pistons as part of the team’s core, and his late-season surge is coming at an operative time with the postseason just around the corner.
“He can handle and face guys up,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after beating the Raptors. “He’s a different type of big than you see most nights in the NBA. You may have some spacing bigs or some post up bigs, but when you have a guy who can face you up in space who’s got great strength, great hands, great feet and can finish at a high level, he’s hard to guard. And especially he’s can through contact and making his free throws now, so he’s just a problem for people. It’s the rebounding, it’s the offensive stuff, the sharing, being a hub for us offensively. He’s just grown, and it’s been beautiful to watch.”
Bickerstaff highlighted Duren’s confidence as an integral factor for his growth this year. During the All-Star Break, Bickerstaff mentioned that he’s had to progressively convince Duren to hunt down his own shot on a more regular basis, and it’s resulted in one of the league’s most stark improvements from last season until now.
But with the playoffs finally visible, the Pistons are about to shift their focus to the postseason after clinching a Central Division title last night.
“You take pride in understanding how hard it is to do any of those things in this league,” Bickerstaff said. “You take pride in the fact that you have a group of young guys, young men who collectively have grown and achieved certain milestones. For us, it’s a part of the process. We expect more, but you can’t disrespect how difficult it is to do any of those things in this league, and it is a big deal for our guys in this organization to get ourselves back in that position and in position to do more. You can’t win at the level you want to win at if you don’t take those steps.”
At the moment, the Pistons’ magic number in order to clinch the top seed in the East is down to two since Detroit has a 4.5 game lead over the Boston Celtics in second place with six games left.
For more information on the latest Detroit Pistons team or player news, follow @EricJRutter on X for continued basketball coverage. Also be sure to look up Roundtable - Michigan Men Media on Facebook for continued social media coverage of all the sporting teams in the Mitten.