Pistons look to bounce back against Raptors
By Ryan Love
The Detroit Pistons (33-35) will host the Toronto Raptors (39-29) Friday night at the Palace. The Pistons, losers of two straight, look to hang on to the final playoff spot in the East.
It is crunch time for the Pistons as the end of the regular season is less than a month away. They will play host to the fourth place Toronto Raptors Friday night at the Palace. The Pistons are coming off of back-to-back midweek losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz that dropped them two games below .500.
Amidst the losses, Stan Van Gundy has put his stud sixth man, Tobias Harris back into the starting lineup, and will keep him there for the foreseeable future according to Jake Chapman at Pistons.com.
Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry will miss his 12th straight game Friday with a wrist injury that has inhibited the team from competing with Washington and Boston for the two and three seeds.
The Pistons and Raptors have split their season series 1-1 thus far, both games having been in Toronto. Their last game was a thriller in which Kentavious Caldwell-Pope quieted the Air Canada Centre crowd with one the most clutch quarters of his career. KCP drained a three-pointer with 13 seconds to go in the game that sealed a 16 point comeback win for the Pistons.
That game was as exciting as it was peculiar for the future of this Pistons team. The regular starters including Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, and Jon Leuer got benched as the Pistons second unit showed great poise down the stretch.
Fast-forward to now where the once-promising, sixth-seeded Pistons have dropped to eighth, with the red-hot, Miami Heat (33-35) looming in their rearview mirror.
Van Gundy and the Pistons will continue to battle their star’s inconsistencies in what will be a tight playoff race throughout the next three weeks.