Casey’s Pistons prove they can pose problems for Raptors down the road

DETROIT – The Toronto Raptors rested their superstar, Kawhi Leonard, for the 18th game this season. The Detroit Pistons wouldn’t think of resting theirs at this time of the year.

They don’t feel they have the choice.

As Pistons head coach Dwane Casey knows all too well, these are two teams in different places at the moment, with Detroit scraping to stay in the playoffs and the Raptors in theory coasting home.

It’s hard to tell, though, as Casey’s Pistons improved to 2-0 over his old team with a 112-107 overtime win in a game the Raptors played without Kawhi Leonard (load management).

Without Leonard, it was Kyle Lowry who had to carry the Raptors offensively down the stretch and he was more than up to the job as he scored 25 of his game-high 35 points in the second-half and overtime to go along with his seven rebounds and five assists.

He scored all seven of the Raptors points in the extra period as Toronto led by five with 2:22 to play as Lowry hit a 29-footer to the delight of a crowd at Little Caesars Arena that was loaded with Raptors fans who came over for the border battle. But Lowry missed another three, failed to convert a lay-up when he seemed to be fouled and then watched as Pascal Siakam missed a dunk and OG Anunoby air-balled an ill-advised three with 13 seconds on the shot clock and the Raptors down two with 36 seconds left.

“[Kyle] was awesome,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “About the only thing he didn’t do really good was make that last layup to tie it there late. But he was amazing. He drove the ball and bounced people and hit some big-time threes. He was really awesome tonight.”

Lowry wasn’t having it: “It don’t matter. We lost. You know how I feel about that. We don’t win, it don’t matter.”

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Casey’s Pistons put together a 10-0 run to close Toronto out. The win moved Detroit into sixth place in the East and out of a potential head-to-head match-up in the first round.

That might be good news for the Raptors given the way Casey’s club has played Toronto in two meetings this year.

His new club — where he landed after being unceremoniously fired after seven fruitful seasons in Toronto – are determined to become relevant having gone 10 years without winning a playoff round and having made the playoffs at all just once in nine years and not since 2015-16.

The signs of progress are there, over-and-above their overtime comeback win which was their ninth in their past 11 starts as they improved to 31-31. The Raptors dropped to 46-18 and remain 2.5 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Bucks although five games up on the Indiana Pacers in third.

“I think we are getting [our fans’] trust,” said Casey after the game. “We said we are going to have to earn it and I thought our guys found a way to win. It wasn’t pretty, we made some mistakes down stretch that were tough but we made up for them with hard playing.”

It’s been a slow, season-long build but it’s helped that since Feb. 1, Detroit leads the NBA in three-point field-goal percentage at a blistering 41.1 (the Raptors are a respectable 37.7; sixth overall). The Raptors held Detroit to 12-of-33 from deep, but saw the game slip away when they lost Reggie Jackson for a corner three in transition in overtime.

Casey attributes their growth to time together on the floor – the main reason he bristled at suggestions he might look to rest his meal ticket, Blake Griffin, against the Raptors as Detroit had played in Cleveland on Saturday night.

He quickly shut down the idea of shutting anyone down.

“No, no, no. We’re playing,” he said. “You got your uniform on, you’re playing. You’re getting paid twice a month and we’re here to make the playoffs … all our guys, if they want to give [Pistons owner Tom Gores] back some of his money for taking those days off, that’s one thing, but we’re here on a mission and trying to create something. We’re in different places as far as so-called load management.”

“[Having a consistent lineup has] helped us, offensively and defensively; guys playing, practicing. getting in a rhythm, understanding rotations, knowing when they’re going in the game,” said Casey. “We’re trying to get where Milwaukee, Toronto and Golden State, some of those teams are right now. We’re in a different place.”

The Raptors, who played on Tuesday and Friday this past week, have shifted their rationale for resting Leonard since the beginning of the year when there was plenty of optimism that Leonard’s need for ‘load management’ was a short-term thing.

Remember when Leonard was eventually going to be fit enough to play in back-to-backs?

Now it’s hard getting him to play three games in a week given Leonard hasn’t played three consecutive games since early January. It’s no longer a matter of getting Leonard healthy, it’s about keeping him that way.

“We’re again trying to just stay ahead of the game a little bit with him,” said Nurse. “I know it’s not a back-to-back but it’s a little earlier start. We are just trying to keep him super healthy as we come down the stretch here.

“We just don’t see, really, any reason to put any extra stressors on him … it’s been a long time since he played a full-ish season. We’re just trying to stay ahead of the game.”

It will be interesting if the Raptors will be able to reach their full potential with so much game-to-game disruption in their lineup. It was their late-game defensive execution that may have suffered Sunday, but the next game it could be something else.

“I think we’re still a long ways away from being in the playoffs mode,” said Marc Gasol who just missed an open look at the end of regulation that would have sent the Raptors home with a win. “We’re still trying things and feeling out some things offensively and defensively that can work for us. At this point we’re not thinking about other teams, we’re working on our own stuff and seeing what combinations of guys, schemes, plays work, We’re not at that point yet.”

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Even in the loss, there were positives. Anunoby’s play among them as he teamed with Pascal Siakam to make life tough on Griffin, who had 14 points on seven shots in the first quarter, but needed 14 shots to get his next 13 points on his way to 27 for the night. Anunoby chipped in 11 points on a variety of hustle plays elsewhere, including the tip-in that tied the game with 1.6 seconds left.

But the Raptors will need Leonard to make any noise in the playoffs, it would just be nice to have more of him before that.

The Pistons don’t have that luxury. Casey helped the Raptors become one of the best regular season teams in the NBA over the past five years by coaching every game and every quarter like it mattered.

He’s brought that mentality to the Pistons and it’s paying off as Detroit has become a tough out under Casey as the Raptors might recall from their comeback, buzzer-beating win over Toronto at Scotiabank Arena in November.

As their second meeting proved, should these two teams end up meeting in the playoffs, the Pistons could give the Raptors everything they can handle.

You know Casey won’t rest if he gets that chance. The Raptors can only hope Leonard will be rested enough.