The Associated Press
AUBURN HILLS, Mich.–Kyle Lowry didn’t look rusty in his return for the Toronto Raptors last night.
After missing 18 games with a wrist injury, Lowry played 42 minutes and had 27 points and 10 assists to help the Raptors overcome a 20-point, first-half deficit in a 105-102 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
“I wouldn’t have played if I had any fear,” noted Lowry. “If I’m going to come back, I’m going to go out there and play basketball with no limitations.
“This is what I love to do, and I wanted to go out there and help our guys win a game.”
With the win, Toronto moved a half-game ahead of Washington for third place in the East.
“We came back and played well in the fourth quarter, but we didn’t start the game the right way,” said Raptors’ coach Dwane Casey.
“I liked the way we finished but we can’t play that way and expect to go anywhere,” he stressed.
Jonas Valanciunas had 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter for Toronto while Cory Joseph added 15, but it was Lowry who made the difference.
“He’s the team,” DeMar DeRozan said. “He runs us, and he showed it tonight.
“There’s no words I can put into context that will explain what it means to get him back.”
Ish Smith and Tobias Harris had 16 points each for Detroit.
The Pistons remained 11th in the conference–three games behind Miami, Chicago, and Indiana with four games to play.
“They scored 37 points in the fourth quarter and I don’t remember us getting a single stop,” said Pistons’ coach Stan Van Gundy.
“Our offence wasn’t great, but we went into the quarter with a 12-point lead and scored 22 points,” he noted.
“You have to win that game.”
Serge Ibaka’s three-pointer gave Toronto its first lead of the game with 1:20 to play, but Marcus Morris answered with a three-pointer to tie it at 100 with 1:09 left.
Valanciunas put the Raptors back in front before Smith’s short jumper spun out with 50 seconds left.
DeRozan followed with a 20-footer to give the Raptors a 104-100 lead with 25.6 seconds left.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made it 104-102, then the Pistons fouled Valanciunas with 7.1 seconds to play.
He split the free throws to put Toronto up three before Caldwell-Pope and Harris both missed tying shots.
Detroit was playing without starting point guard Reggie Jackson, who has been shut down since March 24 after struggling all season after a knee injury.
“I’m not going to talk about Reggie Jackson tonight,” Van Gundy said when asked about missing Jackson’s offence late in games.
“I’ll talk about the players who played but he wasn’t even on the floor.”
Caldwell-Pope wasn’t expected at the arena after his wife went into labour earlier yesterday, so Van Gundy was surprised to see him in the second quarter.
He took his regular rotation spot in the second half but only scored two points.
“I didn’t even know McKenzie had the baby until I looked over and saw KCP sitting on the bench,” Van Gundy noted.
“I guess we couldn’t expect much from him after that kind of day.”
Toronto won for the 21st time this season when it trailed by double digits at some point.
The Raptors next host Miami tomorrow night.
