The Canadian Press
Neil Davidson
TORONTO–The Pistons delivered for coach Dwane Casey in his return to Toronto.
But Detroit left it late–rallying from a 19-point deficit to edge the Raptors 106-104 last night on Reggie Bullock’s buzzer-beater before 19,800 at Scotiabank Arena.
Jose Calderon, a former Raptor, in-bounded the ball under the Toronto basket with 1.2 seconds left. There was a scrum under the basket and Bullock escaped Pascal Siakam, his minder, allowing Calderon to find him alone in the corner of the paint.
On the sideline, Casey threw his arms in the air and then pumped his fist as the jubilant Pistons swarmed Bullock.
“They were pulling for me, I appreciate that tremendously,” said Casey, Toronto’s winningest coach.
“It’s a players’ league,” he noted. “It’s about the players, it’s not about coaching, it’s about players.
“But again, it’s about human beings. But those human beings, they felt for me,” he added.
“I think it meant a lot to him,” Pistons’ forward Blake Griffin said of Casey.
“I was proud of the way we came back and responded, and yeah, this was for him, for sure.”
Toronto (12-3) seemed to have the game in control for the first three quarters but fell behind after a furious fourth-quarter fightback by Detroit and lost its second-straight.
“We just took our foot off the gas a little bit defensively and all of a sudden they’re shooting a couple of wide-open ‘threes’ and that just sparks them,” said Raptors’ coach Nick Nurse.
“Bang, bang, a couple of ‘threes’ go in and then another one goes in and all sudden all that work you’ve done for, for let’s say 34 minutes, is gone quickly because you just took your foot off the gas a little bit.”
Griffin led Detroit (7-6) with 30 points and added 12 rebounds while Andre Drummond had 11 points and 14 rebounds.
Reggie Jackson and Stanley Johnson had eight points apiece in the fourth quarter when the Pistons outscored Toronto 29-16.
The 16 points were a season-low for any quarter for the Raptors, who made matters worse by committing eight of their 20 turnovers in the final frame.
Kawhi Leonard had 26 points for Toronto while Siakam added 17 and Greg Monroe 14.
Kyle Lowry had 14 points and seven assists.
Detroit cut the Toronto lead to 11 going into the final quarter. A 23-9 Pistons’ run to open the quarter gave the visitors a 100-97 lead with less than five minutes left.
A Leonard lay-up made it a one-point game with 3:19 to go. And he added a free throw to tie the game at 100-100.
Buckets by Griffin and Drummond made it 104-100 before Lowry scored via lay-up. Leonard then hit a shot to tie it at 104-104.
Griffin missed a shot and the Raptors called a time-out with 10 seconds remaining.
Leonard headed to the basket but lost the handle and the ball slipped away with two seconds to go. Siakam prevented the winning bucket by blocking an attempted alley-oop by Glenn Robinson III.
But then Calderon and Bullock, who finished with five points on the night, worked their magic.
Griffin said Casey’s ability to draw up plays is well-known to the Pistons.
“It’s not like we just discovered this today,” he noted. “We put in plays like that all the time in practice.
“He [Casey] demands execution and we executed,” Griffin added.
Lowry said after the game the Raptors needed to do a better job communicating on defence.
Toronto shot just 4-of-20 from three-point range compared to 10-of-33 for Detroit.
The Raptors came into the game looking to match their best-ever start over 15 games (13-2), set in 2014-15.
Toronto went into the game without Serge Ibaka (knee soreness), Norman Powell (shoulder), and C.J. Miles (adductor strain), then lost Danny Green in the third quarter to lower back tightness after he was crumpled by Andre Drummond on a pick play.
Casey drew a crowd, both at the Pistons’ morning shoot-around and his pre-game availability.
And he was given a standing ovation during the Pistons introductions. Lowry came over to the visitors bench to give him a big hug prior to tip-off.
The Raptors paid tribute to Casey on the video board during a first-quarter time-out. Casey was busy at the Pistons’ bench drawing up a play but waved to the standing crowd, mouthing thank you as the tribute wound down.
Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas were among the Raptors players applauding at mid-court.
The 61-year-old Casey led Toronto to three-straight 50-win campaigns and four Atlantic Division titles in five seasons.
But after failing to get past the Cleveland Cavaliers again in the playoffs, Casey was fired May 11–two days after being honoured with the Michael H. Goldberg Coach of the Year Award by the National Basketball Coaches Association.
He went on to win NBA Coach of the Year Award, as voted on by the media, in June.
Casey, who was 320-238 in seven seasons in Toronto, was hired by the Pistons one month after being let go by the Raptors following a franchise-high 59-win season.
