Pistons 106, Raptors 104
TORONTO — Reggie Bullock scored a buzzer-beater as the Detroit Pistons rallied from a 19-point deficit to defeat the Raptors 106-104 Wednesday night, making a winner out of coach Dwane Casey in his return to Toronto.
Toronto 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.
Blake Griffin led Detroit with 30 points.
Kawhi Leonard had 26 for Toronto while Pascal Siakam added 17 and Greg Monroe 14. Kyle Lowry had 14 points and seven assists.
Trailing by as many as 19, 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 remaining.
A Leonard layup made it a one-point game with 3:19 remaining. And he added a free throw to tie the game at 100-100.
Buckets by Griffin and Andre Drummond made it 104-100 before Lowry scored via layup. Leonard hit a shot to tie it at 104-104. Griffin missed a shot and the Raptors called a timeout with 10 seconds remaining.
Leonard headed to the basket but lost the handle and the ball slipped away with two seconds remaining. Siakam prevented the winning bucket by blocking an attempted alley-oop by Glenn Robinson III.
Detroit (7-6) had 1.2 seconds left to score and Bullock sank a shot from the corner for the win.
The Raptors (12-3) came into the game looking to match their best-ever start over 15 games (13-2), set in 2014-15.
Toronto had won six straight against Detroit since 2017, its longest winning streak in the series. The Raptors have won or tied the season series with the Pistons since 2012-13.
Casey drew a crowd, both at the Pistons’ morning shootaround and his pre-game availability.
And he was given a standing ovation by the Scotiabank Arena crowd 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 timeout. 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 consecutive 50-win campaigns and four Atlantic Division titles in five seasons.
But after failing to get past the 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.
Casey was nostalgic about his team in Toronto, still referring to the Raptors as “we.”
“This place was special for seven years. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that,” he said prior to the game. “Special from where we started, from where we are now. The way it ended wasn’t special. But again that’s the NBA.
“If we had lost 20 games, 40 games, it would have been probably understandable … I understand it because it is the NBA but you never understand why. Because you did win and you won at a high level.”
Both teams were coming off losses — Detroit to Charlotte and Toronto to New Orleans.