Detroit Pistons: Bullock hits buzzer beater in Casey’s return to Toronto

Dwane Casey’s return to Toronto was one for the ages, as the Detroit Pistons overcame a 19-point deficit to defeat the Raptors 106-104. Eddie Zilincik has your recap on a wild night in Canada.

Dwane Casey and his Detroit Pistons scored a thrilling 106-104 comeback win over the NBA-best Toronto Raptors (12-3) on a buzzer beater from Reggie Bullock.

Casey, coaching his first game against the team he led for the previous seven seasons, was able to get a 19-point comeback win that deep down is probably very special for him.

The Pistons (7-6) got the ball back with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Casey called a timeout and drew up an out-of-bounds lob play for Glenn Robinson III, which was blocked out-of-bounds by Pascal Siakam with 1.2 seconds left.

With no timeouts and 1.2 to go, Casey had the team run a play with heavy traffic in the paint. Blake Griffin drew the defense’s attention when he moved out toward the 3-point arc.

At the same time, Bullock moved in the opposite direction of Griffin, going through the lane toward the left side of the basket. He caught the in-bounds pass on a cut, and threw up a floater while still moving away from the basket.

The shot found its way in the hoop with double zeros on the clock, thanks to Casey’s second consecutive great play that allowed Bullock to essentially catch the ball on the run wide open.

“They were pulling for me and I appreciate that,” said Casey following the win. “It’s a player’s league; it’s not about the coaching, but it’s about human beings.”

“They felt for me, I was trying to deflect it, but Blake (Griffin) was the first one to come congratulate me and said ‘it’s a great one for you coach.’”

Casey received a standing ovation upon being introduced pregame and again during the first timeout of the game during a video tribute.

He was able to defeat his protege and assistant of five seasons in Nick Nurse.

During the first half and early in the third quarter, Detroit gave a listless, lethargic performance where they got out-hustled to the ball on multiple occasions.

One example of this was when Andre Drummond let an easy rebound get away from him on the offensive end, missed an even easier defensive rebound the next possession, and then allowed Pascal Siakam to score (plus a foul) all in one sequence.

Kawhi Leonard was also able to get two consecutive steals and turn them into points on the other end, while Detroit struggled to shoot from the outside.

The Pistons were additionally getting crushed inside by the likes of Siakam, Greg Monroe, and Jonas Valanciunas inside.

Leonard was getting wherever he pleased on the court, and the Pistons were throwing the ball all over the court, for nine first half turnovers.

The Raptors put up 65 points in the first half on 52 percent shooting and out-rebounded the Pistons 30-20.

It seemed as if the Pistons were about to have another no-show performance in a game against team with a winning record. A 12-point halftime deficit ballooned to 19 with six minutes to go in the third quarter.

But thanks in part to the effort of Griffin, the Pistons still found themselves down but not out because of his 20 points in the first half.

The game flipped when Casey inserted his bench late in the third quarter; a unit that some would call a collection of misfits and spare parts. However, early on this season, the bench has sparked a number of key runs in Piston wins, and even kept them in games where they came up short.

The insertion of Stanley Johnson guarding Kawhi Leonard turned around the game for Detroit as well. Leonard had only had 7 points for the rest of the game after having 19 with six minutes left in the third, coupled with four turnovers.

The seldom used Jon Leuer also got some action over Zaza Pachulia in the pivotal run late in the third, and was a plus five with four points and four rebounds.

Those numbers aren’t eye-popping, but Leuer had an impact along with Langston Galloway (13 points, six assists, plus seven) and Stanley Johnson (12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, plus five).

Detroit went on a 28-13 run led by these players over a 10 minute span, to make it 92-88 with less than eight minutes in the game.

Johnson had two big triples to pull Detroit within one, and then Reggie Jackson hit two shots to put Detroit up 100-97. The offense had some of the typical late game problems that have hurt them in previous losses late, with a lack of ball-movement and execution and a few too many hero shots.

Toronto took advantage of this and tied the score at 104 on a Leonard 10-foot pull-up jumper with 38.8 seconds remaining.

This time however, Detroit got just enough offense and the right recipe on the defensive with some timely stops to put themselves in position to win.

Detroit misfired on its possession with less than 30 seconds left, but received good fortune when Leonard dribbled the ball out-of-bounds off his foot with two seconds on the clock.

The Detroit Pistons took advantage and scored a win on the Bullock buzzer beater.

This was the Detroit’s first buzzer beating victory since Jan. 21, 2017 against the Washington Wizards. It was also the first victory for Detroit when trailing by 19 or more points since Oct. 21, 2017 at New York.

This win ended a six-game losing streak to the Raptors and a 2-9 stretch against the Raptors over the previous three seasons. This was also the first win at Toronto since Feb. 12, 2017.

Detroit will have some time off in the next few days to recuperate from this one. The next game for the Pistons isn’t until Monday at home against Cleveland at 7 p.m.